As part of Warner Bros. Discovery's annual panel at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 2024, three spin-offs of classic Cartoon Network shows were announced and slated for HBO Max: Regular Show: The Lost Tapes, Foster's Funtime for Imaginary Friends, and Adventure Time: Side Quests. The latter will be the third spin-off in the Adventure Time franchise, after Distant Lands and Fionna & Cake, both of which served as continuations of the series.
Adventure Time: Side Quests was recently announced to premiere on June 29, not on HBO Max but on Disney+ (via Deadline). While it will still stream on HBO Max outside the United States, it's another unsurprising example of Warner Bros. moving away from its initial kid-focused content.
At the time Warner Bros. originally announced this series, the studio was pushing for more animated shows on its streaming service to compete with Disney+, to the point that "We've got the cartoons" was one of HBO Max's slogans. However, HBO Max has since downplayed itself as a service for kids and families.
However, unlike Fionna and Cake, which Warner Bros. aimed at young adults with its use of swearing and blood, and the still-impending preschool-focused spin-off Heyo BMO, Side Quests will act as a straightforward revival aimed at its original kid demographic when Finn and Jake were younger.
When Will Adventure Time: Side Quests Take Place?
Unlike the two spin-offs before it, Side Quests will not be a continuation of Adventure Time but a prequel of sorts (the chances of rebooting the original Adventure Time still seem rare). That means Side Quests will introduce a new voice for Finn the Human in Sasha Knight, who will replace Jeremy Shada, reflecting the new focus on a younger Finn Mertens.
Thankfully, the rest of the characters will be returning on Disney+ with their original voice actors, including Jake the Dog (John DiMaggio), BMO (Niki Yang), Princess Bubblegum (Hynden Walch), Ice King (Tom Kenny), and, surprisingly, Marceline (Olivia Olson). The last of whom prevents this series from being a strict prequel but more of a midquel, since Finn and Jake met Marceline in Season 1 of the original series.
On top of Marceline's inclusion, Finn's recast, and the absence of his metal arm on the poster, this spin-off suggests it will take place between Seasons 1 and 4 of the original series. This would be before Shada's voice began to drop, and Finn gained the grass sword in Season 5, leading to him losing his arm.
In many ways, it seems like Side Quests will be similar to Regular Show: The Lost Tapes, which has so far jumped around its timeline, both before and after the park was launched into space (long story).
Nate Cash, originally a supervising director for the original Adventure Time series, will act as showrunner and executive producer for Side Quests. He told Deadline, "Making Side Quests felt like making the original Adventure Time," underscoring how this revival will match the original's tone.
While hope for Season 3 of Fionna and Cake is looking bleaker by the day, fans will at least still have Side Quests. This is another chance to see Finn and Jake in their early years before the series became filled with long-running plot threads and an even darker undertone.
