Network has reportedly greenlit a new series centered on SpongeBob’s best friend, Patrick, with Bill Fagerbakke reprising his role as the excitable starfish.
The creative team behind Nickelodeon’s hit animated series, SpongeBob SquarePants, is reportedly already doing voice recordings for an animated spinoff series, The Patrick Star Show, according to Deadline. Nick has supposedly greenlit a 13-episode season of the series, which will feature the excitable starfish hosting his own late-night talk show, with a mostly new voice cast plus occasional appearances by SpongeBob series regulars.
Last June, the network greenlit Kamp Koral, an original SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff series based on a 10-year-old SpongeBob and his hijinks at a summer sleepaway camp. Production supposedly began that month on the CG-animated 13-episode series at Nickelodeon’s Burbank studio. In that series, SpongeBob and his pals spend the summer building underwater campfires, catching wild jellyfish, and swimming in Lake Yuckymuck at the craziest camp in the kelp forest, Kamp Koral. Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller (SpongeBob SquarePants) are co-executive producers.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, Paramount and Nickelodeon’s latest theatrical installment in their hugely successful multi-platform aquatic buddy-buddy franchise, skipped its previously planned August 7 theatrical debut, instead opting for a VOD release in early 2021 before the film moves to an exclusive run on CBS All Access as part of the streaming service’s planned expansion and rebranding.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run follows SpongeBob SquarePants and his best friend Patrick Star as they embark on an epic adventure to The Lost City of Atlantic City to find his beloved pet snail Gary, who has been snail-napped. As they navigate the delights and dangers on this perilous and hilarious rescue mission, SpongeBob and his pals prove there’s nothing stronger than the power of friendship. The 3D/CG animated film is directed by Tim Hill, with a voice cast that includes Tom Kenny, Awkwafina, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Douglas Lawrence and Reggie Watts.
Since the late Stephen Hillenburg’s quirky animated series debuted on Nickelodeon in 1999, the show has been the number one kids’ animated series on TV an astonishing 18 straight years, with the hit franchise expanding to includ theatrical releases, a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, a behemoth merchandising empire and a huge global fan base. It is the most widely distributed property in Viacom International Media Networks history, seen in more than 208 countries and territories, translated in 55+ languages, and averaging more than 100 million total viewers every quarter.
Source: Nickelodeon
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.