Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan was the devil, the government is lying about 9-11, and The Boondocks is coming to HBO Max.
Aaron McGruder and Sony Pictures Animation’s revival of the beloved animated series has been picked up for a two-season, 24-episode order by WarnerMedia’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service. The reboot will kick off with a 50-minute special set to debut in the fall of 2020. In addition, all 55 episodes of The Boondocks’ original series run will be available on HBO Max when it launches next spring.
HBO Max is a logical home for The Boondocks. The original adaptation of McGruder’s comic strip aired on the WarnerMedia-owned Adult Swim for four seasons between 2005 and 2014.
McGruder, who will return as showrunner and executive producer, said of the reboot,
“There’s a unique opportunity to revisit the world of The Boondocks and do it over again for today. It’s crazy how different the times we live in are now – both politically and culturally – more than a decade past the original series and two decades past the original newspaper comic. There’s a lot to say and it should be fun.”
While fans have often debated whether The Boondocks was originally set outside Chicago or in the Maryland suburbs, the HBO Max incarnation will firmly take place in the latter. The show will follow self-proclaimed “Civil Rights Legend” Robert “Granddad” Freeman and his two grandsons, Huey and Riley, as they move into an upper-class community. What appears idyllic quickly becomes hellish when the tyrannical Uncle Ruckus puts the town under the thumb of his own warped, neo-fascist regime.
The Boondocks joins a growing schedule of HBO Max original programming, including the Gremlins prequel Secrets of the Mogwai and Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira’s Americanah. The service will also be the new home of classics like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and more.
