The Boondocks Reboot Has Been Axed By Sony
Bummer news for fans of the animated comedy series "The Boondocks": the series reboot at HBO Max has been canceled by the folks at Sony, who own the rights to the franchise. In an interview on "1-on-1 w/Deuces" (via ComicBook), series star Cedric Yarbrough confirmed that the reboot is no longer moving forward.
The series was created by Aaron McGruder, based on his comic strip of the same name. The original series aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and followed Riley, Huey, and their grandfather as they tried to survive in a mostly-white suburbia. The revival was originally set to debut on HBO Max in the fall of 2020, but that date came and went without so much as a word on its possible future.
Now it's looking like we won't see the continued adventures of Huey and Riley after all.
The Future of the Franchise
I've loved "The Boondocks" since I was Riley's age, reading the Sunday funnies in my grandma's kitchen. The idea of seeing the series tackle current topics sounded great, and I'm admittedly pretty bummed that the series isn't moving forward. Yarbrough was sad to see things turn out this way as well, though he has hopes the series could return in some way in the future. He explained the brilliance of the series to Deuces:
"They've surrounded us with an amazing cast. Regina King, so brilliant. The late, great John Witherspoon was fantastic. Gary [Anthony Williams] is killing it. [Aaron] McGruder and Carl Jones are giving us the permission to go there. They're like 'Yes! Improvise. We'll do the script but you know f*** around. Do you. Let's see what you got.' That gave that show the heartbeat. It wasn't just a written show with Black minds. It's also a written show with Black arts as well."
King voices both Riley and Huey, while Witherspoon provided the voice of Robert, the boys' grandad. Williams provides the voice of the boys' cantankerous Uncle Ruckus, a racist who says horrible things about Black people and believes he's actually a white man. Prior to the reboot being announced, McGruder was trying to get an Uncle Ruckus live-action film crowdfunded. On the crowdfunding page, the explanation for a live-action Uncle Ruckus story was simple:
"There's always been interest in a live-action Boondocks movie, which to me was out of the question considering Huey and Riley are essentially impossible to cast. The animated feature would cost around $20 million, but a live action Uncle Ruckus movie could cost a fraction of that. So just for the hell of it we had the costume made and it was pretty amazing. To see Gary actually transform into Uncle Ruckus... it's quite the surreal experience. I never expected the transition to be so completely seamless."
A live-action Uncle Ruckus movie would be a helluva thing, and if we can't see the Freeman family back in action in animated form, at least we could see their most notorious enemy go buck-wild in the real world. For his part, Yarbrough holds onto hope that they might one day revisit the series, telling the podcast that, "hopefully, maybe one day we'll be able to revisit. If we don't then that's what that is. But, I wish the show was coming back."