RJ Writing Ink’s Recap of Amazon Prime’s Adult Animation Panel for SDCC 2024

My friends, we are living in a new golden age for adult animation, and Amazon Prime is helping to lead the charge.

Over the past few years, Amazon Prime has become a Mecca for adult cartoons, racking up hit after Internet-breaking hit. The streaming platform has set the world on fire, adapting existing IPs like Invincible and Vox Machina and giving indie animation like Hazbin Hotel a home. Many people still think animation is kids’ stuff, but platforms like Prime are proving that to be false. And if what I’ve heard about the attendance levels for Prime’s adult animation panel at Comic-Con 2024 were true, it’s working. Prime dropped updates for many of its adult cartoons, and the fans are eating it up!

I’m RJ Writing Ink, and here are my thoughts on all the big reveals for Amazon Prime’s SDCC panel, “Adapting Fan Favorites: A Conversation With Prime Video’s Adult Animation Creator.” Buckle up and prepare to eat good, because Prime is cooking!

More Invincible is on the Way

After what felt like an eternity, Prime Video’s adaptation of the hit comic book series, Invincible, returned for its sophomore season. And while the second season was a little shaky at its start, the second half proved it still had what takes to make the Internet go crazy. At Comic-Con, Amazon Prime didn’t just reassure fans that a third season was on the way; they let us know it had been renewed for a fourth season. So we can expect the bloody superhero show to be around for a good few years.

In addition to this announcement, Prime gave fans a preview of the upcoming third season, complete with a teaser visual featuring Mark Grayson, the titular Invincible, in a new suit. The change in colors isn’t just for show, though. It’s the start of an even darker period in Mark’s already dark life.

Much of Mark’s character arc throughout season two focused on Mark trying to prove to everyone, including himself, that he was better than his father. He believed that he could rise above the killer that Omni-Man had proved himself to be. However, that notion was proven false in the season finale when, in a fit of rage, Mark gave into his darker side and apparently beat the insane villain Angstrom Levy to death. After returning home, Mark pretty much gave up on having a regular life, deciding to drop out of college and focus on being Invincible full-time.

Comic book readers will already know this, but this new suit symbolizes Mark adopting a darker mindset as Invincible. Whereas he once tried to hold himself back, he’s not afraid to kill his opponents. He’s still a hero, but his experiences have made him a more pragmatic one—one that recognizes that sometimes he has to kill those he’s fighting to save even more people. It’s going to take a long, long time for him to recover from this trauma, and we can expect more bodies to pile up before that’s done.  

Check into Hazbin Hotel for More Seasons

In October 2019, a YouTuber named Vivienne “VivziePop” Medrano and her team released the pilot to a show they called Hazbin Hotel, a series about the Princess of Hell trying to prove sinners could be redeemed and get into Heaven. Fast forward five years later, and that show is now running on Amazon Prime and bigger than ever. Most of the people I follow on social media are fans of Hazbin Hotel, work on it or its sister show, Helluva Boss, or make videos about it. And those same fans are ecstatic at the news they got from Comic-Con.

We’re getting a third and fourth season of Hazbin Hotel, with more shipping, more music, and even more over-the-top violence! The bad news is that we still don’t know when season two will premiere. However, the fact that the show’s already been renewed for two more seasons shows how confident Prime is in it. This is a good thing because I think the season finale left a lot more stories to be told.

I’ve been a fan of VivziePop and her team since the pilot for Hazbin Hotel, and thanks to its sister show, Helluva Boss, I’ve seen her become an A-lister in indie animation. Her success has led to plenty of new indie shows being greenlit on YouTube, several of which have become just as big as Vivzie. While it seems like animation juggernauts like Warner Bros and Disney are floundering, indie animators are out there proving you don’t need a big studio to make something great. Fingers crossed we won’t have to wait long for season two.

Vox Machina Continues its Fights this Fall

Speaking of shows that we won’t have to wait long for, another animated hit is making its return to Prime this fall: The Legend of Vox Machina. Based on Critical Role’s first D&D Campaign of the same name, Vox Machina has proven to be a huge hit, attracting fans of the OG campaign and new fans alike. And at SDCC, panel-goers got a first look at the upcoming season.

If you’ll recall at the end of season two, Vox Machina is halfway through their quest to find weapons capable of taking down the Chroma Conclave, AKA the alliance of dragons that threatens to conquer their entire continent. And judging by what happens in the teaser, their quest isn’t going to get any easier. Expect more epic fights, mayhem, and personal growth to occur. And I, for one, am looking forward to all of it. I’m a fan of most of the voice actors that make up Critical Role, and welcome any chance to hear more from them.

Don’t Eat Before Watching More of Sausage Party: Foodtopia

Back, in 2016, Seth Rogen and a few other people released a movie called Sausage Party. It was a crude, gross-out parody of Disney animated films about a group of foods from a supermarket trying to survive after learning what humans do to food after they leave the store. The film ended with a teaser for a sequel where the cast heads to the real world to get revenge on the film’s cast.

Yeah, forget about that, because that sequel series has nothing to do with that idea. Instead, Sausage Party: Foodtopia focuses on the foods trying to build a new society, with predictable results. And despite not being that well-received by fans and critics, it’s somehow getting a second season on Amazon Prime.

I’m going to be honest: I didn’t watch Foodtopia. I tried to, but the original film was already pushing it for me, even though I loved it. And after hearing what happens in the series, I don’t have the stomach for it, no pun intended. I honestly don’t see why they decided to renew this. I doubt that I’m going to watch it. It’s sad since I was a big fan of the film. But I guess you can’t win them all.

What do you think about all this, though? Amazon Prime is cooking, huh?