Smiling Friends, the hit animated comedy series from creators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, shocked its fans earlier this year, when it was announced out of the blue that the show would be coming to a close. Adult Swim had commissioned two more seasons of Smiling Friends, but Hadel and Cusack knew it was time to say goodbye.
"Both Zach and I talked to each other and were just like, 'Our tank is empty right now.' We just knew it was right to end it there," Cusack told The Hollywood Reporter. That doesn't mean that the creators were out of ideas, but that the spark wasn't there for them to work on any of them.
According to Hadel and Cusack, if they wanted to return to the series, the door would be open as they've already got ideas written down, and even scripts drafted. "The biggest misconception is people thinking that we were creatively burnt out, or we didn't have any ideas. That's the opposite of true...We still have a Google doc full of a bunch of ideas, but we wouldn't have been happy doing it. It wouldn't have been bad, but it just would have lost the juice," Hadel explained.
"We had scripts ready for season four, even if it was draft-y. In a few years, if Zach and I feel like making the show again, we'll dig them out and see if they're worth making or if we want to start fresh again," Cusack added.
In their initial announcement of the show's end, Smiling Friends' creators did say that perhaps one day there's an opportunity to come back. But, right now, there's nothing in the pipeline apart from other projects for Hadel and Cusack. "Michael and I are already doing something that's very small and very stupid. Some people will fucking hate it, but that makes me love it," Hadel said.
