Picture: Netflix
Another Netflix Animated series won’t be returning for additional episodes beyond its initial two-season upfront order, with Oddballs confirmed not to be returning for a third season.
Crafted by Netflix Animation and Atomic Cartoons, Oddballs centers around James, a kid with a unique bubble shape who experiences strange and thrilling adventures. He is joined by his closest companions: Max, a somewhat slow-witted crocodile, and, starting from the 4th episode, Echo, a girl with the extraordinary ability to travel through time. It’s based on the art style and characters established by the YouTube Channel, TheOdd1sOut.
Oddballs Was Canceled in 2023
Much like Tribes of Europa, which we reported wouldn’t be returning for a second season, we’re a bit late to the party on this one. However, given how this cancelation seems to have skipped most of the news outlets, we still thought it’d be worth closing the book on Oddballs officially here.
The news of the cancelation came in May 2023 from Ethan Banville, who serves as the co-creator of the show alongside James Rallison. In the video titled “Oddballs Graphic Novel! and Odd BTS – The Show Mustn’t Go On”, Banville spoke about several news items but notably opened up by saying that Netflix had canceled the show.
Here’s the full transcript of Banville announcing that the show wouldn’t be coming back for more.
“That’s right guys, you saw correct. So, a couple of big announcements.
Oddballs is no more, sadly. Netflix just, even when the show’s a hit, they don’t make more of animated shows, unless you’re Boss Baby, I guess. So, needless to say, you’ve got the 20 episodes on Netflix to enjoy.
And then, if you want some new Oddballs, if you want to see the five stories that we always wanted to do, but Netflix wouldn’t let us do for the show, we’ve done them in a graphic novel that comes out on September 5th, 2023, just in time for going back to school or for that late summer, early fall kind of read. Check out Oddballs, the graphic novel. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon and all the other kind of online booksellers, and you can get it in person on the 5th.
This is relatively common for Netflix’s lineup of kids’ animation, with much of Netflix’s library failing to get beyond its initial upfront order or beyond a few seasons. In 2023, we even saw upfront orders not fully committed to, with Captain Fall and Farzar both canceled despite getting two seasons up front.
We don’t have a lot of viewing data for Oddballs, but we do know that while season 1 managed to enter the global top 10s for a single week between October 9th and 16th, 2022, the second season didn’t.
From the Netflix Engagement Report that looks at the viewing hours for the first six months of 2023, we can see:
- Oddballs (Season 1) got 31,900,000 hours
- Oddballs (Season 2) got 17,500,000 hours
Are you disappointed that Oddballs won’t be returning for a third season? Let us know in the comments down below.