Adult Swim Premieres First Online-Only Series, J.J. Villard’s ‘King Star King’
Last night Adult Swim premiered its first exclusively online animated series King Star King. A punk psychedelic space adventure about a He-Man-esque sci-fi figure who works in a waffle restaurant, the show was created by J.J. Villard, a former DreamWorks story artist (Shrek the Third, Monsters Vs. Aliens) who’s also known for his CalArts student films Son of Satan and Chestnuts Icelolly.
The Titmouse-produced series was originally planned for broadcast television, but for unknown reasons (possibly related to content), the network chose to release the entire six-episode season online, with one exception: the final episode is viewable only after completing ten levels of the King Star King game Floppy King.
While the strategy of releasing all of a show’s episodes online at once is one that Netflix has popularized in the last few years, forcing viewers to unlock a television episode as a reward is something unprecedented for a major content provider. Check out the pilot below and decide if it’s worth the effort:
