One of my most-watched YouTube videos of all time is the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con panel for Adventure Time‘s final season. The summer before the animated series ended its original run, the cast and crew behind the beloved cartoon assembled onstage to reminisce, crack some jokes, answer questions from the audience, and most importantly, perform live versions of some of Adventure Time‘s most iconic songs.
John DiMaggio, the legendary voice actor behind Jake the Dog, delivers a raucous reprise of “Bacon Pancakes” with plenty of audience participation. Olivia Olson (Marceline the Vampire Queen) performs a moody rendition of her character’s rock ballad, “I’m Just Your Problem.” Near the end, Adventure Time writer/storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar whips out a ukulele to perform “Time Adventure,” a soulful song she wrote for the series finale.
Sugar’s performance is a touching sendoff, both for the Comic-Con panel and the entire show, and if you look closely, you can see DiMaggio wipe a tear from his eye as she strums her ukulele and sings. That moment felt like the end of an era for millions of Adventure Time fans. So when I got on a Zoom with DiMaggio to discuss the latest franchise spinoff, Side Quests, I was eager to find out how he feels about resetting the series eight years later with a more lighthearted approach that winds the clock back to the youthful spirit of its earliest episodes.
Turns out, DiMaggio still thinks about that Comic-Con panel a lot too.
“I’m just angry that I embarrassed myself in front of all those people,” he tells Polygon. “I don’t want anybody coming off of this interview and Googling, you know, ‘John DiMaggio crying at Comic-Con.'”
As for Side Quests, DiMaggio couldn’t be happier to revive the series this way.
“I’m thrilled,” he says. “I’m thoroughly enjoying it.” He also praises Sasha Knight, the 17-year-old voice actor taking over the role of Finn from Jeremy Shada in what feels like another major change for the series. “Sasha’s just doing such a fantastic job. And we’re getting the band back together, dude. It’s just great.”
Of course, Adventure Time never really went away. After a brief break following the series finale, the show returned with a series of streaming spinoffs designed to fill in the cracks of the original story (and keep the IP fresh). Distant Lands aired in 2020 and 2021 as a four-part series expanding the stories of various beloved characters, including one about Finn’s eventual death as an old man and his reunion with Jake in the Land of the Dead. In 2023, Fionna and Cake turned a recurring Adventure Time joke into a full-blown multiverse adventure. That trend will continue with Bubblegum and Marceline, a new spinoff announced last week at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, but in the meantime, the franchise is going in a bold new direction.
Adventure Time: Side Quests isn’t designed to continue the main story or flesh out minor characters. The series, which takes place in between Adventure Time seasons 1 and 2, debuted on June 29 with a 20-episode binge drop on Hulu and Disney Plus. It’s a throwback to the early days of the original series, when the show was mostly simple, one-off stories about fun adventures, before it got dark and complicated. The new mid-quel brings back that approach with humorous 10-minute installments that always reset the story by the time the credits roll.
Side Quests also doesn’t look like classic Adventure Time. While the character and world designs haven’t changed, the visuals get a storybook-style update with flatter character animation, richer backdrops, and cleaner linework. It sends a clear signal to the audience: This isn’t the same old Adventure Time from the 2010s.
I’m not saying Side Quests is the future of Adventure Time. Bubblegum and Marceline will continue the original story, while Heyo BMO, another spinoff meant for preschool-aged viewers, is also in the works. If anything, the franchise is splintering off into more directions than ever before.
But while Bubblegum and Marceline can’t give up the past, and Heyo BMO feels like it might deviate too far from the original, Side Quests finds a happy middle ground. It’s a familiar retread that also feels fresh. Eight years after Adventure Time ended with music and tears, Finn and Jake (and the rest of the gang) are finally stepping forward into a brand new era. As a longtime fan, I’ve never been more excited for the future of the franchise.
Adventure Time: Side Quests is streaming now on Hulu and Disney Plus.