Pictures: Netflix
Over the years, Netflix has had some excellent adult animated series, but unlike Big Mouth, most don’t run for endless amounts of seasons. Over the past two years, we’ve seen a number of great adult animated titles land on Netflix, but their futures are still up in the air.
We should say that while this doesn’t necessarily paint a positive light on Netflix’s adult animation output, they are still investing heavily in the area with lots of different creators. In August, we’ll see the Bojack Horseman creator come back for his new series, Long Story Short. We’re also getting new seasons of Love, Death & Robots, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, Blue Eye Samurai, and Devil May Cry in addition to new upcoming titles like Ghostbusters, Splinter Cell, Stranger Things, In Case of Emergency, Mating Season and Haunted Hotel, to name but a few. That’s not counting all the kids and anime titles on the way.
Let’s review each case and assess its likelihood of removal in order of initial release. It’s worth noting that we did contact Netflix for comment on most of these, but they declined. We’ve also included additional Netflix comments where appropriate.
Skull Island (Season 2)
Picture: Netflix
Debuting in the summer of 2023, we got numerous updates from the creator of Skull Island following its launch to suggest that Netflix would indeed have to renew the series to get anymore episodes and although the second season was reportedly written, a renewal, now two years later, looks almost impossible to come our way.
The good news (or consolatory news, perhaps) is that the series will continue in another form in June 2025, with a comic book planned to continue the story from the series. Titled Return To Skull Island, it comes from Titan Comics, was written by Simon Furman, and was drawn by Christopher Jones.
Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix (Season 2)
Picture: Netflix
We’re now over 18 months since the excellent Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix landed on our screens, and although it looked and sounded like more was on the way, it has yet to materialize. However, we need to take some responsibility for this one. We posted in early 2024 that the series would be returning in 2024. We based that on a new teaser trailer for the year’s new animated projects, and Captain Laserhawk featured several times. Netflix eventually yanked that trailer.
We did get more Captain Laserhawk in December 2024 with a cryptocurrency NFT project… Yikes.
While on the subject of Adi Shankar, we should note that no information has been provided as to whether The Guardians of Justice will ever return, although our understanding is that it was always intended as a one-off limited series. As mentioned at the top of the article, Devil May Cry is coming back for a second season, and fingers crossed, we eventually hear about the long-rumored Assassin’s Creed animated title Shankar has been long attached to.
Terminator Zero
Picture: Netflix
Another marketing blunder for this one led us to believe that the series had been renewed. Netflix’s Latin American account published a social post with the news that Terminator Zero would be returning for a second season. Netflix would later send us a follow-up email saying, “We are not able to confirm that Terminator Zero has been renewed.” What does that mean in practice? We don’t know!
The closest creator Matt Tomlinson has come to publicly acknowledging a season 2 was in a post on Twitter, saying, “I have a multi-season story that takes us deep into the Future War, but we’ll only get it if the audience numbers back it up. Be it 3, 4, 5 seasons, I know what the last episode is.” But that doesn’t count as a renewal – fingers crossed the blunder was because they went too soon rather than getting it wrong entirely…
Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 3)
Picture: Paramount+
Putting this squarely on Netflix’s lap to renew may be a bit harsh, given that it’s technically already rescued Star Trek: Prodigy once before and is not considered to be a Netflix Original. In case you missed it, the Paramount+ series was given an upfront order of two seasons, with Paramount+ only airing the first before pulling the plug. Netflix stepped in late 2023, not only picking up season 1 but also going on to stream season 2 from June 2024.
Although there’s been some positive news from the team behind the show about getting a third season, they have all dispersed from working on the show, with many we’ve tracked down working at new companies or projects. Viewing numbers weren’t exactly mindblowing, and given Netflix’s rights to the show are on a short period (more on this in an article coming up soon), the likelihood of another revival is looking slim from where we’re sitting.
Masters of the Universe: Revolutions (Season 2)
Picture: Netflix
Serving as Netflix’s third He-Man show following He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Masters of the Universe: Revelation, only five episodes of this follow-up series dropped in January 2024. We’ve heard nothing about the future of the show or franchise from Netflix since. The fifth episode ends on a cliffhanger with a trilogy ultimately planned, so we’re surprised to have heard nothing about the future. The last time we got any news was back in October 2024, with Kevin Smith essentially saying it’s down to Mattel and DreamWorks to allow any what he’d refer to as season 3, going ahead.
Twilight of the Gods (Season 2)
Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
Jay Olivia and Zack Snyder were behind this Nordic animated series that landed on Netflix back in September 2024. We got confirmation that the series wasn’t given a two-season upfront deal, and looking at the viewing stats, it wasn’t a big performer, with it only clocking in as the 336th most-watched series for the six month period during it was available. Netflix remains in business with Zack Snyder with a new LAPD thriller and a handful of Rebel Moon projects (although the movie franchise is expected not to return), but the future of Twilight of the Gods is up in the air.
Mulligan (Season 3)
Picture: Netflix
I’ve always tried to be objective, but I truly didn’t understand who Mulligan was for when it was first unveiled, and I still struggle to this day. Despite this, two seasons, expected to be part of an initial upfront order, dropped in 2023 and 2024 and performed horribly in the Netflix charts, making this one an easy one to predict; we won’t be seeing any third part for the political comedy.
Good Times (Season 2)
Picture: Netflix
Last year, Netflix announced a Good Times animated reboot, and it went viral instantly, just not for the right reasons. While I won’t rehash the criticisms here, it’s safe to say the series did not land very well with critics or audiences when it was released on April 12th, 2024. The series did pretty poorly with viewership, too, acquiring 4M views throughout the entirety of 2024, leading us to believe this is one-and-done.
Exploding Kittens (Season 2)
Picture: Netflix
The popular card game (and turned Netflix mobile game release), Exploding Kittens, exploded onto Netflix with 10 episodes in July 2024, with an impressive cast. While there’s some evidence there were plans for a second season (it’s listed on the WGA site, for example), it’s now been a year since the series was released, and most people attached to the show initially have moved on to other projects, from our research. We have reached out to the company behind the game and the animation studio that worked on the series, but they did not respond to requests for comment on the future.
Jentry Chau vs the Underworld (Season 2)
Picture: Netflix
One of our favorite new Original animated series of 2024 was Jentry Chau vs the Underworld. Dripping with personality, the show definitely leaves plenty of direction to go for a potential second season, but there’s been no official word as of yet. We don’t have much viewership data on the series, given that it only debuted in early December, but we know it picked up 1.8M views in those first few weeks. Creator and showrunner Echo Wu also confirmed on Reddit, through a plea to get others to watch the series, that it hadn’t been given an upfront order and gave ways on getting the show renewed:
- We need to get the viewership UP. Way up.
- Tell all your friends to watch! We really do rely on word of mouth! It helps a lot!
- Let’s go viral! Make a dance trend! Make a meme! Social media is the modern day news outlet. I can’t stress enough how important this is for Jentry cutting through all the noise.
- Rewatch the show. Seriously. (Super liking and rewatching it also helps!)
I know animation is in a weird place right now, but I’m hopeful it will thrive again. And to do that, we need your help getting the word out there about Jentry. I believe in you all. You guys really do have all the power and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Castlevania: Nocturne (Season 3)
Picture: Netflix
The most recently released title from the Netflix library is Castlevania: Nocturne. The show’s creators were pretty vocal ahead of season 2 that while they had plans for a third season, its future would be very much dependent on performance. While it looks like the show put in some impressive viewership, being on par with season 1 at least, we’ve had no official word since.
Given the number of side characters in Castlevania, we suspect that if the series does come back, it’ll be in a new iteration. My colleague Jacob predicts Simon Belmont is the most likely of the bunch.
Of course, we only went back to 2023 shows for this list, but there are also a bunch more released in 2023 that never got definitive renewal/cancellation decisions, such as:
- Dragon’s Dogma (Season 2)
- Dota: Dragon’s Blood (Book 4)
- Super Crooks (Season 2)
- Tekken: Bloodline (Season 2)
- Bee and PuppyCat (Season 2)
- Dragon Age: Absolution (Season 2)
Are you hoping any and all of these animated adult series will return for new seasons? Let us know in the comments below, and if you have intel about the fates of any of these shows, reach out to me via X or email: [email protected].
