{"id":310845,"date":"2026-02-26T07:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/310845\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T07:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T07:12:09","slug":"smiling-friends-creators-share-show-will-end-with-season-3-scrapping-earlier-renewals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/310845\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Smiling Friends’ Creators Share Show Will End With Season 3, Scrapping Earlier Renewals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, the creators for Adult Swim\u2019s \u201cSmiling Friends,\u201d shared Season 3 will be the show\u2019s last, despite a prior two-season renewal.<\/p>\n

The duo issued the update in a voice message to fans released on Youtube Wednesday evening, where they confirmed the announcement was \u201cnot a bit\u201d or \u201ca joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to announce that \u2018Smiling Friends\u2019 will be ending after Season 3 is done,\u201d Hadel and Cusack said. \u201cWe know that\u2019s super disappointing to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the reason behind the decision, Hadel and Cusack noted that they were both feeling \u201cpretty burnt out after putting years and years into this,\u201d adding they also felt \u201cpretty accomplished\u201d by what they had created.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Man-on-the-Inside\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

They continued: \u201cWe just came to this feeling where we\u2019re like, \u2018I think that could just be it after Season 3. And, yeah, we both felt like it was right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per the pair, they didn\u2019t want to continue on with more seasons if they were feeling \u201chalf-hearted\u201d about it, defending it was \u201cnot fair\u201d to them or the audience.<\/p>\n

Hadel and Cusack were vehement that this was solely their decision, praising Adult Swim for its reaction to their choice to end \u201cSmiling Friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdult Swim are very supportive,\u201d they noted. \u201cWhen we told them exactly this, they said, \u2018You know, if you\u2019re not feeling like making a cartoon, we\u2019re not going to stop you. Go have a break. Either come back or don\u2019t.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

However, Hadel and Cusack clarified that they hadn\u2019t ruled out more episodes later on, adding, \u201cWe\u2019ll have to determine that in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to their full statement above.<\/p>\n

Hadel and Cusack\u2019s announcement comes after \u201cSmiling Friends\u201d was officially renewed for Seasons 4 and 5 in June 2025. The series has become one of Adult Swim\u2019s top-performing shows on HBO Max outside of \u201cRick and Morty,\u201d ranking among the platform\u2019s top 10 series during its Season 2 premiere.<\/p>\n

The third season debuted back in October, with two more additional episodes to air in April before the show concludes.<\/p>\n

Per a logline for the show, \u201cSmiling Friends\u201d follows \u201cthe employees at a small firm dedicated to making its customers smile,\u201d who then \u201cdiscover that their jobs are rarely as simple as they seem.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, the creators for Adult Swim\u2019s \u201cSmiling Friends,\u201d shared Season 3 will be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[41020,146,85,46,41023,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-310845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-adult-swim","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-smiling-friends","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}