Among Netflix’s upcoming adult-animated series slate is Exploding Kittens, an adaption of the hit card and video games. Here’s a rundown of everything we know so far about the new series that’s expected to land on Netflix by the end of 2023 and will get an extensive first look at Netflix’s Geeked Week in November 2023.
Exploding Kittens, as you may know, began its life as a Kickstarter campaign for a card game. After being successfully funded, the sky was the limit with a video game later released and a slew of other board games, too. The initial campaign remains the #1 most-backed project in Kickstarter history.
Netflix first announced the Exploding Kittens series in April 2022. That was a month before the mobile game got a port to Netflix Games.
The series follows the “eternal conflict that reaches epic proportions when both God and the Devil are sent to Earth in the bodies of chunky house cats.”
Exploding Kittens will be a 2D-animated series expected to clock in at 30 minutes for each episode.
Who’s behind Netflix’s Exploding Kittens Series
Bandera Entertainment and Chernin Entertainment are the two main companies behind the new title. The former is helmed by Greg Daniels (The Office, Space Force) and Mike Judge (King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head), and the latter is run by Peter Chernin, who has an extensive overall deal with Netflix.
Matthew Inman and Elan Lee, the company’s two founders of Exploding Kittens, serve as executive producers on the project. Inman, alongside Shane Kosakowski (You’re the Worst), will serve as the two main showrunners for the series.
Netflix’s John Derderian oversees the title under his slate of titles as Vice President of content for animated series.
Composing duo Shirley Song and Jina Hyojin An will be handling the music for the new series. The pair recently put together the soundtrack for Netflix’s XO, Kitty.
The animation studio behind the new series is Canadian-based Jam Filled Entertainment, which has worked on several Netflix shows over the years, plus plenty for other distributors. Their Netflix entries include Inside Job, We Lost Our Human, and Pinky Malinky. Netflix Animation Studios are also behind the project.
Among the other people we found working on the series include:
- Eddie Rosas as episodic director
- Megan Harries as art director
- Becky M. Yang as a production coordinator
- Tyler Chapman as manager of casting
- Craig Young as head of production
- Jessie Moore as animation supervisor
- Mary Nash as a background designer
- Chris George as a character designer
- Bill Cleveland as a background designer
- Laurel Gregan as 2D animator
- Heather Alexander as a storyboard artist
- Siti Lu as story revisionist
Of course, a show like this will have dozens and dozens of people working at every stage of development, from initial planning, production, post-production, and beyond.
Who is in the cast for Netflix’s Exploding Kittens?
The main cast for the series was announced alongside the initial show announcement:
- Tom Ellis (Lucifer)
- Abraham Lim (The Boys)
- Lucy Liu (Elementary)
- Ally Maki (Wrecked)
- Mark Proksch (Better Call Saul)
- Sasheer Zamata (Woke)
- David Gborie (How to Be Broke)
When will Exploding Kittens be on Netflix?
When the series was initially announced, it was unveiled that it would be released sometime in 2023. At the Netflix Upfronts in May 2023, Netflix confirmed that the series would be released in Fall 2023.
We expect to hear about the release date and get more first looks at the new animated series at Netflix’s Geeked Week that’s taking place between November 6th and November 12th, 2023. Ahead of the event, Netflix released a teaser sizzle for the new event where we caught our first glimpse at the new series.
Ahead of its release, Netflix will unveil an exclusive clip from Exploding Kittens at the 2023 Annecy Film Festival in France. Sadly, that clip has yet to be available publicly.
Are you looking forward to checking out Exploding Kittens when it hits Netflix later in 2023? Let us know in the comments down below.