Hägar the Horrible is set to make a raid on the small screen with an animated family sitcom series in development.
Fresh Off the Boat writer and producer Eric Ziobrowski is writing the adaptation, which comes from King Features, the Hearst-owned division behind the comic strip and The Jim Henson Company.
The series will follow the hardworking Viking family led by a larger than life hero, Hägar, who can’t quite understand how the society he once understood is changing around him.
Hägar, who was created by Dik Browne, has been running in newspapers since 1973 and found himself at the center of U.S. politics earlier this year after a framed Hägar strip was seen on President Elect Joe Biden’s desk in the video call where he choose Kamala Harris to be his Vice President.
The series will be made using Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a proprietary animation technology that allows Henson’s puppeteers to manipulate animated characters in real time, allowing for an organic, spontaneous performance.
Writer Ziobrowski has also previously worked on series including American Dad and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23. Lisa Henson, CEO and president of The Jim Henson Company, and Halle Stanford, president of television for The Jim Henson Company, will executive produce, along with C.J. Kettler, president of King Features.
It is the latest television appearance for Hägar, which was adapted in 1989 by Hanna-Barbera as a special for CBS. A film was also in development in 2014 via Sony Pictures.
Hägar the Horrible is one of several properties that King Features is currently developing for television and film. It is currently working on an adaptation of video game Cuphead for Netflix. The Jim Henson Company currently produces Earth to Ned for Disney+ and Fraggle Rock: Rock On! for Apple TV+ as well as The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for Netflix.
“As a burly Viking with a tough exterior, Hägar is an enormously sympathetic character who is out of step with the evolving world around him. His village’s cultural zeitgeist is changing, and he is trying to keep up,” said Kettler. “The Jim Henson Company is known for their amazing storytelling and incredible digital puppetry, and we can’t wait to reimagine Hägar with them and introduce him to next generation audiences together.”
“Hägar is long overdue for his own series, and this new animated family sitcom, set in the rich and hilarious world of Vikings, will continue the tradition of what we do best at The Jim Henson Company,” added Henson. “Hägar is such a well-established, evergreen character and audiences immediately know and love him. Dik Browne’s comic will be a delightful and irreverent playground for our digital puppetry studio.”