‘Rick And Morty’ Producer Starburns Industries To Adapt Fantasy Comedy Podcast ‘Hello From The Magic Tavern’ As Animated Series

Hit comedy podcast Hello from the Magic Tavern will be adapted as an animated series by Dino Stamatopoulos’ Rick and Morty Starburns Industries and Sam Rockwell and Mark Berger’s Play Hooky Productions.

The show will mark Play Hooky’s first animated endeavor, but Starburns Industries has carved out a spot as one of the leading indie adult animation labels in the U.S. The company’s credits include Rick and Morty, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s Oscar-nominated feature Anomalisa, stop-motion series Morel Oral, and a popular animated adaptation of company co-founder Dan Harmon’s role-playing show HarmonQuest.

Hello from the Magic Tavern was launched in 2015 by creators Arnie Niekamp, Matt Young, and Adal Rifai. A synopsis for the weekly show, which will debut its fifth season next week, reads:

Hi! I’m Arnie. I fell through a portal behind a Burger King and found myself in a strange magical land called Foon. Somehow I’m getting a wi-fi signal so I host a weekly podcast, interviewing creatures, wizards, and adventurers. I recommend listening from the beginning. But hey, you do you.

According to Deadline, which first announced the series adaptation, the animated show will follow Niekamp and his otherworldly friends Usidore the Blue (Young) and Chunt the Talking Badger (Rifai) on a series of wild adventures in the land of Foon and beyond.

In a joint statement, Rockwell and Berger told Deadline:

As soon as we listened to the podcast, we fell in love with this world and these characters and quickly became fans. We can’t wait to continue to build Foon with Arnie, Matt, and Adal and add gorgeous animation from Starburns to the puzzle.

Niekamp, Young, and Rifai added:

It’s been a lifelong dream to work with the amazing artists at Starburns and Play Hooky who want to help us create an animated series of Hello from the Magic Tavern, allowing us to tell familiar stories with a new twist in an exciting medium. We can’t wait for our fans to see what we’ve been up to.