‘Hazbin Hotel’ Trailer Proves American Adult Animated Comedies Can Be More Than Vulgar

Prime Video has released the official trailer for season one of Vivienne Medrano’s musical animated series Hazbin Hotel, based on a viral pilot.

The streamer will debut four episodes of the series on January 19 and release two episodes per week over the following two weeks.

It’s too early to make any big assumptions about the show, but the trailer seems to buck the recent trend seen in American adult animated comedy series of vulgarity for vulgarity’s sake. The characters in Hazbin Hotel feel fleshed out and subversive, the jokes are well delivered, the animation looks fresh, and songs performed by Broadway stars add an exciting dimension to the production.

Here’s what we know about the series:

• Medrano serves as the show’s executive producer and directs all its episodes. She launched the Hazbin Hotel pilot on her Youtube channel in October 2019, and it has since been viewed over 89 million times. A24 then picked up the viral pilot in 2020.
• Hazbin Hotel is produced by A24 and Fox Entertainment’s Bento Box Entertainment. The series features original music from Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg.
• Prime Video’s synopsis for the show reads: “Hazbin Hotel follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, as she pursues her seemingly impossible goal of rehabilitating demons to peacefully reduce overpopulation in her kingdom. After a yearly extermination imposed by angels, she opens a hotel in the hopes that patrons will be ‘checking out’ into Heaven. While most of Hell mocks her goal, her devoted partner, Vaggie, and their first test subject, adult film star Angel Dust, stick by her side. When a powerful entity known as the Radio Demon reaches out to assist Charlie in her endeavors, her crazy dream is given a chance to become a reality.”
• The series’ voice cast includes Erika Henningsen, Stephanie Beatriz, Alex Brightman, Keith David, Kimiko Glenn, Blake Roman, Amir Talai, Christian Borle, and Joel Perez, along with guest appearances by Broadway veterans Darren Criss, Jeremy Jordan, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Patina Miller, and Jessica Vosk.
• Executive producers are Joel Kuwahara, Dana Tafoya-Cameron, and Scott Greenberg.