After other cancelations of series that lived on Hulu, the streaming giant gave one of its non-MCU shows a renewal for a second season, but with a unique twist.
Hulu and Marvel have had a unique relationship over the last few years, with the streamer hosting a number of classic Marvel movies while also being home to a few Hulu-exclusive shows centered on Marvel characters. This includes a couple of unique properties from the animated realm that featured a Marvel legend with MODOK and a relative unknown in Hit-Monkey, both of which added something new to the Marvel world.
MODOK, unfortunately, met its end in Spring 2022 with Hulu unceremoniously canceling the show after 10 episodes, although the MODOK character is set for an exciting story on the big screen soon with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
But now, thanks to an incredibly surprising update, it appears that Marvel's run on Hulu isn't completely over just yet.
Marvel Hulu Show Survives for Season 2... Sort Of
Deadline revealed that Hulu has renewed the animated Marvel series Hit-Monkey for a second season on the streaming service. This comes as a surprising move, as the show was not expected to continue after sister-series, MODOK was canceled after only one season.
But while the show was renewed for a second season, it will have a different feel when it returns.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that Hit-Monkey will now no longer carry the Marvel branding, simply being promoted as a Hulu show with no connection to its Marvel Comics roots.
Season 2 will now follow two of the show's leading characters, Jason Sudeikis' Bryce and Fred Tatasciore's Hit-Monkey to New York City.
Ghostbusters and Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones will also join the cast in an undisclosed role.
Will Rebranding Change How Fans See Hit-Monkey?
Because of how insanely popular the Marvel brand is these days, largely thanks to the MCU, it's certainly a strange development to see Hulu use this strategy with Hit-Monkey. Particularly since it used the old Marvel TV brand during its first season, seeing the series go without it moving forward will bring up plenty of questions amongst fans, especially with this being the only Marvel-related show living on through Hulu.
Since the characters and story are already established, it's unlikely that any drastic changes will be made to how Hit-Monkey and his supporting cast operate in their universe on the small screen. But without the Marvel branding, it may allow more license for the creators to touch on plot points possibly outside of the Marvel source material, even though it's difficult to predict how that will play out.
Hulu's viability with Marvel shows has been a huge question mark with the company in recent years, particularly with Marvel Studios' rise to dominance on Disney+ with high-quality shows that are deeply connected to the MCU movies. And even though Hulu is under the Disney umbrella, Marvel Studios hasn't made the decision to use that streaming service for any of its MCU projects, making it even more shocking that a show like Hit-Monkey survived these changes.
Regardless of the reason, this obscure property will live on to see another day with new and exciting adventures to come, leaving viewers curious about how the killer monkey's future will play out in the ever-changing comic-book project landscape.
There is no release date set yet for Hit-Monkey Season 2.
