As Netflix‘s Geeked Week is coming to a close, the streamer has a few more exciting projects up its sleeves, especially for adult animation fans. One remaining series is Exploding Kittens, an animated adaptation of the best-selling tabletop card game. A new teaser shared during the event sets up far higher stakes than just a few combustible cats, however. The series follows the eternal conflict between good and evil, specifically through their embodiments, God and Satan. Both immortal beings have been brought to Earth as fluffy felines, and it’s up to God Cat (Tom Ellis) to ensure his creation is safe from the dark.
The teaser makes the danger posed by Satan (Lucy Liu) and Hell abundantly clear as the world descends into chaos. Blood rains from the sky as Satan transforms, looming over humanity with giant tentacles as black as the void. It’s a lot harder for the king of Hell to reign supreme in the body of a house cat, however. Much of the footage is instead focused on God who is getting along just fine as a feline, enjoying his many creations including “sunsets, cheetahs, Florida,” as well as the human-made game of whack-a-mole with a giant animatronic swamp rat. In between God Cat’s indulgence of Earthly wonders, he uses his powers to fight back against Satan Cat, which comes off less as some holy war, but as a petty and comedic feud between two polar opposite felines.
Exploding Kittens will round out its cast with Abraham Lim, Ally Maki, Mark Proksch, and Sasheer Zamata with Shane Kosakowski and Matthew Inman set as showrunners. Kosakowski has a fair bit of experience writing for hit adult animated shows like Archer and Beavis and Butthead as well as other series including The Muppets., but this will be his first time at the head of a project. Inman, however, is one of the game’s original creators with Elan Lee, who joins him as an executive producer, and Shane Small. The pair is teamed up with a superstar collective of executive producers including King of the Hill‘s Mike Judge, his partner and The Office showrunner Greg Daniels, and Dustin Davis, who’s also working on the upcoming King of the Hill reboot. All three are involved through their Bandera Entertainment banner with Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping rounding out the team through Chernin Entertainment Group.
Netflix’s ‘Exploding Kittens’ Series Ties in With the Card Game
To create some synergy across its television and game catalog, Netflix originally announced the Exploding Kitten series alongside a mobile version of the popular card game which was released to subscribers last year at no extra cost through its apps on Android and iOS. The premise of the game is to avoid drawing the deadly Exploding Kitten card by utilizing a variety of cards with unique powers to protect yourself and doom your opponents. Beyond merely porting Inman and company’s game, the hope was to create synergy across both Netflix’s television and game catalog by offering updates based on the show. Already, the physical game is getting in on the war between God and Satan Cat with a recently released new version titled Exploding Kittens: Good vs Evil featuring Ellis and Liu‘s characters along with a revamped card set.
There’s no release date yet for Exploding Kittens. While we wait for more news on the series, read our full guide here for some of the best animated shows on Netflix right now. Check out the teaser below.
via Collider