Jodie: Daria Spin-Off Transitions From Series To Feature Film, Sets Main Cast
La la la la la ... the "Daria" spin-off series, "Jodie," is going to be a movie instead. The animated spin-off to the cult MTV series "Daria" has been in the works for some time, but now MTV Entertainment Studios has announced that it will be a feature film instead of a series, and they've also announced the main cast and synopsis. The original "Daria" series aired on MTV from 1997 to 2002 and highlighted the teenage angst of the otherwise apathetic Daria Morgendorffer, her friends, and her family. Jodie was one of the tertiary characters on "Daria," though she was written into more episodes as the series progressed. Unlike Daria, Jodie was a part of the popular crowd, though she valued academics over popularity or parties. She often surprised people by going against their expectations of her, though she never did it out of rebellion; she was just honest and true to herself. Jodie is the perfect character for a spin-off, and now we have all of the details on her move to the movies.
The stacked cartoon cast of Jodie
"Daria" itself was a spin-off of "Beavis and Butthead," so it only feels right to spin that series off into something else. In a press release, MTV announced the full cast for the movie. Tracee Ellis Ross was previously announced as Jodie, and will now be joined by Pamela Adlon, Cole Escola, Jojo T. Gibbs, William Jackson Harper, Zosia Mamet, Alex Moffat, Dermot Mulroney, Arden Myrin, Kal Penn, Kofir Siriboe, Dulcé Sloan, and Heléne Yorke.
The movie will follow Jodie as she exits college and moves to a gentrifying city to begin her adult life. She starts an internship gig at the mysterious "Google-like" tech firm FirstFinity, and tries to figure out what's next. The movie will be executive produced by writer and showrunner Grace Edwards along with Ellis Ross and Ashley Kohler. The announcement also featured character descriptions for the revealed cast, which might give us some more clues about the movie's plot.
Adlon will play Jocelyn Light, Jodie's boss and VP of Internet Affairs at FirstFinity, while Mulroney will play her boss, Lionel, the CEO of the company. Siriboe plays Raymond, Jodie's good-looking but mean-acting supervisor and Moffat plays Barry, the internship coordinator who tries to act much younger than he actually is. Then there are the interns: Escola as sardonic Ryan, Mamet as Greta the hippie empath, Penn as tech bro Sandeep, and Yorke as butt-kissing social climber Nia. Original series characters will be back as well, like Jodie's high school sweetheart Mack (Harper) and former Lawndale cheerleader-turned-influencer Britney (Myrin). Sloan will play Jodie's best friend from college, Cas, while Gibbs will play Cas's ex who happens to live in Jodie's building.
"Daria" was great because it was an honest, if sometimes satirical look at trying to survive high school. "Jodie" will hopefully do the same for that weird time post-grad when you're just trying to figure out how to be an adult. This is one fantastic cast, and it'll be a trip to see Britney's Insta. I wonder if Kevvy is still around...