'Strange Planet' TV Series, Based On The Popular Webcomic, Heading To Apple TV+ With Dan Harmon

Strange Planet, the immensely funny and often sweet webcomic from Nathan Pyle, is becoming an Apple TV+ series. Apple gave the animated series a straight-to-series order, with Pyle and Rick and Morty and Community creator Dan Harmon executive producing. Like the comic that inspired it, Strange Planet will follow beings from another planet as they deal with everyday situations and complexities in comedic ways.

The news about the Apple TV+ Strange Planet series comes directly from Apple, who have given the animated series a straight-to-series order. The show comes from Nathan Pyle, who created the webcomic, and Dan Harmon. Apple Studios will produce along with award-winning animation studio and production house ShadowMachine (Bojack Horseman). Strange Planet joins a growing line-up of Apple Original animated shows, including Central Park.

The show, described as "a whimsical and comical series," will tell "profound and heartfelt stories about beings on a distant planet not unlike our own." The Strange Planet comic series follows aliens (although technically we're on their planet in these stories, which would make us, the readers, the aliens) as they go about their day. They perform tasks that we consider menial, or even boring, but approach them in an alien manner that ends up being comical. Here's an example.

And here's another example.

I personally think this works much better in comic format, and I'm not entirely convinced it will transfer to TV. But I'll certainly wait and see for myself before making up my mind.

Pyle created the webcomic in 2019. "I want to communicate empathy and curiosity, so I enjoy exploring more situations that let the characters try new activities and actively listen to each other," he told NPR, adding: "I want to celebrate humanity! I think that so much of what we are doing here is meaningful and absurd simultaneously. We have created thousands of different ways just to amuse each other and ourselves and communicate that we care about our friends."

Amalia Levari will serve as showrunner of the series, which will be executive produced by Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico for ShadowMachine. Steve Levy and Taylor Alexy Pyle also serve as executive producers on the project. And as mentioned above, so do Nathan Pyle and Dan Harmon. Harmon is the creator of Community and the co-creator and executive producer of Rick and Morty, so he knows a thing or two about weird animated comedy shows that also make you surprisingly emotional.