Netflix's The Cuphead Show - What We Know So Far
When "Cuphead" debuted on the Xbox 1 in 2017, fans immediately fell in love with the game's animation. Harkening back to the rubber hose era of Walt Disney Animation and Fleischer Studios, the game follows Cupman and his brother Mugman as they fight various bosses in an effort to repay a deal with the devil.
In 2019, The Hollywood Reporter reported that a "Cuphead" animated series would be coming to Netflix. "The Cuphead Show!" is a collaboration between the streaming platform, the video game's studio (StudioMDHR), and King Features Syndicate — the newspaper comics syndicate that features such strips and licensing deals for characters as Popeye, Beetle Bailey, and Fleischer Studios' own Betty Boop.
On June 11, 2021, Netflix released a teaser for the cartoon show, introducing one of its main villains as well as showing off some neo-retro rubber hose animation. The teaser put "The Cuphead Show!" clearly in the tradition of Fleischer's old Cab Calloway shorts. Here's what we know about the upcoming series so far.
When is The Cuphead Show coming to Netflix?
The teaser for "The Cuphead Show!" gave no firmer release date than a simple "Coming Soon." Polygon is reporting that the show is expected to premiere later in 2021. Usually, shows aren't announced in the trades until they are already in production, so that gives production and post-production two-ish years to finish the series. That lines up with the typical amount of time it takes for a cartoon series to make it from scripting to finished product, with a little extra time added on due to the global pandemic messing up basically all film and TV production for a year.
Other projects coming to Netflix in 2021 include Season 5 of "Money Heist," Season 2 of the Tim Robinson sketch show "I Think You Should Leave," and "He's All That," the genderswapped remake of "She's All That" that almost shut down COVID testing at Los Angeles' Union Station in 2020, via ABC 7 News.
Who is in the cast of The Cuphead Show?
The teaser trailer not only showed off the series' incredible animation; it also introduced Wayne Brady as series foe King Dice. King Dice is the devil's right-hand man, and he will put Cuphead and Mughead through their paces on the Inkwell Isles. Brady is perhaps best known for being an ensemble fave on the American version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Brady has done voices on "The Loud House," "Phineas and Ferb: the Movie," and "American Dad!"
"The Cuphead Show!" has more actors listed on its IMDb page, but Brady was the only star confirmed by Deadline. Among the actors listed by IMDb are Grey DeLisle-Griffin as Ms. Chalice. DeLisle-Griffin is a voice-over veteran, with credits that rival pros like Frank Welker and Tress MacNeille (who are both frequent co-stars of hers). She has voiced Mandy on "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy," Daphne on "Scooby-Doo," Azula on "Avatar: The Last Airbender," and she replaced the late, great Russi Taylor as the voices of the nerdy Martin Prince and twins Sherri and Terri on "The Simpsons."
What is the plot of The Cuphead Show?
"The Cuphead Show!" won't be a simple retread of the game's plot. When presented at the Annecy Animation Festival in 2020, it was announced that the series would act as something of a prequel to the game. "All the bosses in the game, we've tried to integrate into our project," director Cosmo Segurson said, as reported by Polygon. Since the game features the cup brothers trying to get out of a deal with the devil, it seems possible that a prequel would show how they got into that deal in the first place.
"Not to give away any spoilers," Segurson said, "but [the writers spent time] figuring out that relationship between Cup and Mugman and the characters that everyone's familiar with in the game, and giving them a voice and giving them a backstory. That's been a really fun challenge for the team." Deadline wrote that Cuphead and Mugman have been fleshed out as one being more active and impulsive (Cuphead) and the other more "cautious but easily swayed" (Mugman).