The creator of the longest-running scripted primetime series ever, “The Simpsons,” is preparing to launch a new show for Netflix. The streaming service today announced it has ordered 20 episodes of an animated comedy series called “Disenchantment,” from “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening. The first episodes are set to debut in 2018, the company says, and will be released ten at a time.
The series is being produced for Netflix by The ULULU Company, and will see Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein (“The Simpsons,” “Futurama”) serving as executive producers. Animation is being done by Rough Draft Studios – the animation production company also used by “Futurama.”
The premise for the adult animated comedy series is one involving “the crumbling medieval kingdom of Dreamland,” where characters will include a “hard-drinking young princess Bean, her feisty elf companion Elfo, and her personal demon Luci,” among other ogres, sprites, harpies, imps, trolls, walruses, and “lots of human fools,” says Netflix, in its announcement of the new series.
The show will also be voiced by several well-known names, including “Broad City’s” Abbi Jacobson, Nat Faxon, who had worked before on animated series “The Cleveland Show,” and has a role in Netflix’s newer show “Friends from College;” along with Eric André, John DiMaggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, David Herman, Matt Berry, Jeny Batten, Rich Fulcher, Noel Fielding, and Lucy Montgomery.
“Ultimately,” said Matt Groening, “Disenchantment will be about life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you.”
Cindy Holland, Netflix VP, Original Content, noted that the new series will bear Groening’s “trademark animation style and biting wit,” and added that “we think it’s a perfect fit for our many Netflix animation fans.”
News that Matt Groening and Netflix were teaming up on a new animated series had been reported back in January, 2016, though the details of their project was then being kept under wraps. All that was known at the time was that Groening would create and write the new show. Plot details or a premiere date weren’t available.
The series will help to expand Netflix’s portfolio of animated series with a high-profile name, and potential hit. The streaming service today has several other animated series, including “BoJack Horseman,” “F is for Family,” the forthcoming Dr. Seuss adaptation of “Green Eggs & Ham,” and the recently renewed video game-inspired “Castlevania.”
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