For decades, Genndy Tartakovsky has been one of Cartoon Network’s definitive voices thanks to the likes of shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack. When he returned to give Jack a proper ending, the show jumped ship to the network’s late night block Adult Swim, and he continued that relationship with his prehistoric series Primal. Previously, Tartakovsky talked about possibly returning to that show beyond its initial two-season run, and now we’ve got our official confirmation: Primal’s coming back for season three.
During the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Adult Swim confirmed that a new run of episodes were currently in production. In a press release, Tartakovsky said the show “has become a contagious disease that I don’t ever want to cure. Every episode flows out like an unstoppable force beyond my control.” In the past, he mentioned possibly having the series take on an anthology format after the first two seasons were focused on a caveman named Spear (Aaron LaPlante) and a female T.Rex named Fang. Whether or not that’s still the plan, the teaser image makes it clear we’ll be spending some time with their respective (and currently unnamed) descendants.
Primal Season 3 is in production. #primal #adultswim pic.twitter.com/rBlcRaxvTR
— adult swim (@adultswim) June 16, 2023
Since its debut in 2020, Primal’s received pretty glowing praise, and racked up some nominations and wins, including Outstanding Animated Program at the 2021 Primetime Creative Arts Emmys. That’s great news for Adult Swim, and it sounds like Cartoon Network wants to use its late night segment to play around more with animation. At Annecy, Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen mentioned Primal and Tartakovsky’s currently airing Unicorn: Warriors Eternal as what the network could do to further the medium. He mentioned that adult animation was currently “in a renaissance,” albeit a growing one. To him, the medium “has the ability to speak to multiple people at once, so hopefully, we’ll continue that. Our mission is to keep advancing what the medium is doing. The challenge of that is making it a success.”
“We think that there’s more to do in dramas or prestige animation,” Ouweleen continued. “We’ve got other things cooking that expand what people usually think adult animation should be doing.”
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
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Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.