Huey and Riley Freeman will not be returning to the big screen. The HBO Max revamp of The Boondocks is no longer in the works.
The renowned comedy animated show from creator Aaron McGruder and Sony Pictures Animation was handed a two-season, 24-episode order by HBO Max in 2019. A 50-minute special was planned to kick off the series in the fall of 2020.
HBO The antics of self-proclaimed “Civil Rights Legend” Robert “Granddad” Freeman and his two rowdy grandkids Huey and Riley would have been the focus of Max’s new Boondocks. Uncle Ruckus and his strange neo-fascist government have taken over the family’s beautiful suburban Maryland town. It turns out that life under Ruckus is a daily fight to stay alive.
According to insiders, Sony is currently considering other possibilities for the project.
The reboot of The Boondocks was released in the spring of 2019 and was confirmed by Sony Pictures Animation during the Annecy Film Festival in June of that year. Because of WarnerMedia’s relationship with the brand, HBO Max quickly emerged as the most likely home for the new show. From 2005 through 2014, the original Boondocks animated series, based on McGruder’s comic strip, ran on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim channel. McGruder won a Peabody Award for the show.
McGruder was expected to return as showrunner and executive producer alongside Norm Aladjem, Seung Kim, and Meghann Collins Robertson of Mainstay Entertainment. The show was to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation in collaboration with Sony Pictures Television.
Cedric Yarbrough, who played Tom DuBois in the original show, commented about the reboot’s future on the Geekset Podcast earlier this week.
“I hate to say this…right now the show is not coming back. We’ve been wanting to do the show and Sony and its…they decided they’re going to pull the plug. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to revisit it…I wish the show was coming back.”
Regina King, John Witherspoon, Gary Anthony Williams, and Jill Talley were among the initial voice cast members of The Boondocks, in addition to Yarbrough.
