Why Adult Swim's The Boondocks Reboot Was Canceled

Aaron McGruder's comic strip "The Boondocks" first appeared in 1996 in the pages of The Diamondback, the school newspaper of the University of Maryland. McGruder attended U of M, graduating with a degree in African American Studies. "The Boondocks" followed the life and experiences of a 10-year-old big-city Chicago boy named Huey and his brother Riley, who have to go live with their grandfather in the suburbs of Maryland. Huey, like McGruder, was sharply aware of the fineries of Black culture and the way it was commonly misused by corporate America. Riley, meanwhile, loved gangsta rap culture and sought the wealth and conspicuous consumption featured in so many rap videos. Both kids butted heads with their grandfather, who, being a WWII veteran and former civil rights activist, had a perspective all his own.

"The Boondocks" was assertively political, which was refreshing in the funny pages. McGruder tried to partner with several distribution syndicates, but too many of them balked at the strip's open discussion of racial and class issues. Ultimately, "The Boondocks" wasn't picked up for national syndication until 1999. Luckily, it proved to be very popular, if sometimes controversial; for example, certain newspapers pulled a strip wherein McGruder referred to the then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a "female Darth Vader-type that seeks loving mate to torture" in a mock personals ad.

The strip ran through to 2006, along the way passing the baton to an Adult Swim animated TV adaptation. Regina King played both Huey and Riley on the series, while the late, great John Witherspoon played the brothers' grandfather. The show took McGruder's comic strip drawings and slightly redesigned them to give them a pseudo-anime vibe. The "Boondocks" TV series was also widely celebrated and ran for four spaced-out seasons in 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2014.

"The Boondocks" was set to be rebooted on HBO by Sony in 2020, and the series actually made it into production before being axed at the last minute. During a discussion with "Double Toasted Interviews" in 2023, voice actor Gary Anthony Williams (who played Uncle Ruckus on the show) revealed that the reboot was simply taking too long to make.

The "Boondocks" reboot, by the way, was not going to be a continuation but a whole new series from a whole new animation studio. Seung Eun Kim was serving as the new director, while Sony would oversee production. The new "Boondocks" series was set to debut in 2020 on what was then known as HBO Max, and it had been slated to run for two whole 12-episode seasons. There was even going to be a long-running story arc this time, with the vicious, delusional, and self-hating Uncle Ruckus overturning the local government of Huey's mostly-white suburb, forcing the kids to have to fight back.

But it simply never manifested. A reason was never officially given, and the new "The Boondocks" simply withered on the vine. Williams revealed the truth in 2023, and it seemed pretty clear-cut:

"I think I can fully talk now. I had already recorded eight episodes of it as Uncle Ruckus. I had done eight episodes. But they decided they weren't going to make it. They thought it was taking too long to get made. Anyone who knows animation knows I can record something today, and it won't be out for at least a year. They were doing some fascinating [things]; they had changed up the animation style. So, it was a beautiful kind of thing. But it was taking too long ... and it got canned. Even after John Witherspoon died, they were still going to figure out how to do his character."

Witherspoon passed away in 2019, and it sounds like a new actor was being sought to serve as his replacement. Perhaps Witherspoon's death slowed production too much, and Warner Bros. didn't have the wherewithal to wait. Before you begin blaming David Zaslav for the cancellation, though, know that he didn't become WB's CEO until 2021. It seems that it was just bad luck and bad timing. Perhaps "The Boondocks" will return one day, continuing the legacy of one of Adult Swim's best shows. But not anytime soon.