Adult Swim's 'Smiling Friends' To End After Season 3

TV & Film

Feb 28

The Smiling Friends are sitting around a table, presumably in an airport, surrounded by luggage and talking. a city landscape is sprawled behind them, visible through large windo — Image Source: *IMDb*

In a shocking turn of events, the popular Adult Swim animated series Smiling Friends will not continue beyond the third season. Series creators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack spoke with The Hollywood Reporter in November 2025, alluding to more seasons following the finale of the third, making this news particularly surprising. Whether there will be more to come in the future is uncertain. On the official Adult Swim YouTube channel, Hadel and Cusack put out a statement confirming and explaining the news.

Hadel cut right to the chase, “We should probably get into the real meat and potatoes of why we’re here, which is, and I'm gonna cut right to the chase, this is not a bit, this is not a joke, Michael and I are here to announce that smiling friends will be ending after season three is done.” Cusack followed up with an acknowledgement, “And uh, we know that’s super disappointing to hear.” He continued, “To be perfectly honest, after we finished season three, Zach and I just both had the same feeling where we feel pretty burned out after putting years and years into this.”

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Charlie the Smiling Friend surrounded by Shmaloogles with a slightly frustrated look on his face — Image Source: *IMDb*

Hadel explained, “I mean even from the very very beginning of the show, we knew, we knew we always said oh man how great would it be to like, you know really make this show as good as it can be and really put 100%, 110% into it and then go out what feels like on top, what feels like leave em wanting more…we wouldn’t want to do more seasons half-hearted.” Cusack reiterated, “This was our decision. Adult Swim was very supportive when we told them. They said…go have a break, come back, or don’t.”

All hope is not lost for potential Smiling Friends content in the future. Hadel mentioned the vague chance that they’ll return to make more, “That’s the other thing, we could come back in the future and make more episodes if we feel like it…but maybe not, who knows, we’ll have to determine that in the future.” Cusack continued, “If we really feel inspired…absolutely, we’ll come back for a special or maybe some more episodes, but it’s gotta be right.” It is not something to expect any time soon, but a return is a possibility. Smiling Friends can be streamed on HBO Max and viewed on the Adult Swim website.

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