{"id":312089,"date":"2026-02-27T00:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/312089\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T00:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:06:09","slug":"smiling-friends-ending-after-season-3-on-adult-swim-despite-renewal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/312089\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Smiling Friends’ Ending After Season 3 on Adult Swim Despite Renewal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSmiling Friends<\/a> fans have fewer reasons to smile as the Adult Swim<\/a> show comes to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Cusack and Zach Hadel co-created the project that debuted in 2022<\/a> and centers on co-workers Charlie (voiced by Hadel) and Pim (Cusack) attempting to bring positivity into the lives of others. Although The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported in June<\/a> that the animated series had been picked up for two additional seasons, Cusack and Hadel announced late Wednesday that they had decided to end it with season three. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is not a bit,\u201d Hadel explained in a recording posted to Adult Swim\u2019s social media. \u201cThis is not a joke. Michael and I are here to announce that Smiling Friends will be ending after season three is done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded Cusack, \u201cTo be perfectly honest, after we finished season three, 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. We just came to this feeling where we\u2019re like, \u2018I think that could just be it after season three.\u2019 We both felt like it was right.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHadel revealed that the final two episodes of season three will air April 12 on Adult Swim. He emphasized that they are \u201cnot big finales\u201d but just \u201clittle rogue planets out there\u201d that were created as part of the season that launched in October. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair explained that they would not want to hand the project off to other creatives, with Cusack noting, \u201cWe\u2019re so control freak-y over it.\u201d According to Cusack, Adult Swim supported the decision to end the show and would allow the pair to revive the project down the road: \u201cWe could come back in the future and make more episodes if we want.\u201d He also said that the pair would be open to working together on other projects.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdult Swim said in a statement, \u201cEveryone at Adult Swim is incredibly proud of what Michael and Zach built and grateful for the bold, boundary\u2011pushing vision behind\u00a0Smiling Friends. Adult Swim has always been a creator\u2011driven network, and\u00a0Smiling Friends simply wouldn\u2019t exist without the singular vision and ambitious creativity of its co-creators. Like fans, we are sad to see this series come to an end. However, we fully respect and support Michael and Zach\u2019s decision to bring their vision to a close with the final two episodes premiering April 12, and we look forward to the possibility of collaborating with them on future projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring an interview with THR<\/a> that was timed to the season three premiere in October, Cusack and Hadel said that they had already written two new episodes for a new season. The duo noted that they would evaluate how they felt after season five and envisioned that it might feel right to end the show at that point. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEven our agents think we\u2019re going to go to season 80,\u201d Cusack said at the time. \u201cOur reps and Adult Swim are like, \u2018Surely, we\u2019ll go on forever.\u2019 But Zach and I know what\u2019s best for the show. The Beatles are so cool. They ended with\u00a0Abbey Road\u00a0on a peak, and it\u2019s like this nice little discography you can go back to watch. Leaving the audience wanting more is the best.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smiling Friends fans have fewer reasons to smile as the Adult Swim show comes to an abrupt end.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[41020,9031,146,85,46,41023,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-312089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-adult-swim","9":"tag-animation","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-smiling-friends","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312089","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=312089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}