Adult Swim‘s animated comedy “Smiling Friends” is ending after its third season. Creators and stars Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel revealed the news in a video posted to Adult Swim’s X account.
“I’m gonna cut right to the chase,” Hadel said at the top of the message. “This is not a bit, this is not a joke. Michael and I are here to announce that ‘Smiling Friends’ will be ending after Season 3 is done.”
“To be perfectly honest, after we finished Season 3, Zach and I just both had the same feeling where we felt pretty burnt out after putting years and years into this, but also pretty accomplished,” Cusack added. “We just came to this feeling where we were like, ‘I think that could just be it,’ after Season 3.”
Hadel explained that from the very beginning, he and Cusack wanted to put “110%” into “Smiling Friends” and then “go out on top.” He said it was better to leave the audience “wanting more” than to have fans think, “‘That show is still on the air? Oh god.’”
“We wouldn’t want to be doing more seasons half-hearted or burnt out or not feeling it,” he added. “That’s not fair to us, and it’s not fair to the audience to give you guys fucking slop. That sucks.”
Cusack explained that ending “Smiling Friends” was “our decision,” and that Adult Swim has been “very supportive.”
“When we told them exactly this, they said, ‘If you’re not feeling like making a cartoon, we’re not going to stop you. Go have a break. Either come back or don’t,” Cusack continued. “That’s the other thing, we could come back in the future and make more episodes if we want, if we feel like it. And they’ve been super cool and said they would let us do that. But maybe not. Who knows?”
The pair went on to announce that two unreleased Season 3 episodes will air April 12 on Adult Swim. Hadel clarified they are “not finales,” but rather “little stragglers” that didn’t make it into the initial season rollout.
“We know this is very disappointing,” Cusack concluded, “It’s been very hard to even record this recording for it because it’s just a very difficult thing to say for us. We hope you understand and we hope you’ve enjoyed what we’ve done. It’s been amazing. The fans have been so good. It’s been the best. It’s been the ride of a lifetime. But I hope you see where we are coming from.”
