Netflix has revealed its first look at Entergalactic, a new animated series starring Kid Cudi, Jessica Williams, and Timothée Chalamet – and it looks absolutely beautiful.
The Netflix show, which is due to be released later this year, is billed as an adult animated music TV series that’ll tell the tale of two young New York-based artists who meet and fall in love.
Okay, so the series’ brief plot synopsis makes it sound fairly unoriginal, but there’s plenty to get excited about over Entergalactic. Not only does the animated show have an absolutely stacked cast, its visual style and tone irresistibly gorgeous. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s as stunning as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (and its upcoming sequels) or another Netflix animated series in Arcane.
Yet to be convinced? Take a look at the Netflix series’ teaser trailer, which was revealed during Day 3 of Netflix Geeked Week 2022:
See what I mean? It’s got that summery, zestful, and painterly-style aesthetic that Into the Spider-Verse and Arcane are renowned for. It looks like a comic book brought to life, with a likely blend of rotoscoping, a hand-drawn style, and animating on twos – a process where every image is held for two frames (per second of footage) instead of one – giving Entergalactic an unusual but highly satisfying art design.
This combination of techniques was pioneered by Sony Pictures Imageworks for the award-winning Into the Spider-Verse, but it’s clearly had a huge impact on the animation industry. Arcane’s unique mix of 2D and 3D anime-like animation, plus the hand-painted-CGI style used for Netflix movie The Mitchells vs The Machines, prove that Netflix wants studios to experiment with different forms of animation to distinguish its projects from its competitors. Both projects went on to win numerous prizes on the 2022 awards circuit, with both securing major honors at the 49th Annie Awards.
Entergalactic, then, looks like it’ll be the next Netflix animated show to place artistic individuality in front of the streaming giant’s global audience. And, given the success of its predecessors mentioned above, there’s no reason why it can’t follow in their footsteps and land more awards for Netflix’s animation department. Netflix subscribers have already started giving their opinions on the show following its debut, with many falling in love with its art style (opens in new tab), being intrigued by its talented cast (opens in new tab), and agreeing with our Into the Spider-Verse and Arcane comparisons (opens in new tab).
Entergalactic has been co-created by Cudi alongside Ian Edelman (How to Make it in America), with first-time director Fletcher Moules helming the project.
As well as Cudi, Williams (Fantastic Beasts 3), and Chalamet (Dune), Entergalactic will star top talent including Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Vanessa Hudgens (Tick, Tick… Boom!), Christopher Abbott (Catch-22), Jaden Smith (After Earth), Keith David (21 Bridges), and Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone, American Horror Story). Hip-hop and rap artists including Ty Dolla $ign and 070 Shake will also appear in the series.
Entergalactic doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, but it’s slated to arrive in Fall 2022. For those outside of the US, that’s this autumn (in the northern hemisphere) and spring (in southern climes).
For more Netflix-based content, find out whether the streaming giant is about to buy Roku or when Star Trek is set to leave Netflix forever. Alternatively, read up on our Netflix Geeked Week coverage, including when The Sandman will debut on the streaming service.
