After their final appearance a decade ago, Phineas and Ferb made a grand reappearance at SDCC on Friday, July 25th. They hosted their panel at the Indigo ballroom in the Hilton Bayfront at 11am PST.
The cast that attended the panel was the show’s creators, Dan Povenmire, who voices Dr. Heinz Doofeshmirtz, and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, who voices Major Francis Mannogram. Accompanying them are the cast members Vincent Martella, Phineas himself, David Errigo Jr., who is Ferb, Ashley Tinsdale, who voices Candace, Dee Bradley Baker, who voices Perry the Platypus, and finally, Alyson Stoner who voices Isabella.
All this excitement for their first panel in a decade comes after their recent announcement for the renewal of the series, dropping a fifth season after the release of season 4 all the way back in 2012. This past June and July, they dropped season 5, with 12 all brand new episodes to kick off the season with.
Along with the panel itself, they came with merch, a costume contest to encourage fans to cosplay as their favorite Phineas and Ferb character and potentially win their giveaway, and a photo op. Fans also got to meet the creators and cast later in the day at 1:15pm to 2pm for a meet-and-greet.
With the cast and voice actors’ arrival to the panel, they had a plethora of questions from the panel moderator, Michael Schneider. He asked Stoner what it’s been like to return to the show. She said “This has been one of the brightest spots in my entire career,” Stoner even dropped her iconic line as Isabella with the classic “What’cha doin’?”
Tisdale was asked what it’s been like to return to the booth as Candace, to which she said “It’s so much fun, Candace is the best!” She also shared that during the recordings that she was pregnant with her second child, Emerson Clover. She hoped, jokingly, that her child doesn’t believe this is real life, as Candace is a crazy character. Baker, during his questioning, did his iconic Perry growl after being asked what his secret to creating the sound is.
Povenmire and Marsh went into more logistics into creating these new episodes. Povenmire expressed that when they were offered 40 new episodes, he was initially unsure if they can pull it off, saying, “we’ve done a lot of episodes for this tv show, I hope we’re not, like, out of ideas, but we got into the room and it was so easy and wonderful,” Marsh shared that some writers who grew up with the show are now in the writing room and giving their own unique perspectives. With the nice blend of old and new writers, they really believe they can create hundreds of fresh, new ideas.
During the panel, they showed a sneak peek of a new episode, as well as a new series called Cartoonified with Phineas and Ferb. This upcoming show serves as a reboot of their Take Two with Phineas and Ferb, but fully animated instead.
They concluded the panel with a lengthy Q&A session, with fun questions from the audience like what their favorite invention or “-inator” is. There were some heartwarming anecdotes like an audience member who said this show inspired them to pursue animation as a career. Another audience member came up with an original Perry the Platypus shirt from season 1, which was released all the way back in 2007.
They gave hints of what’s to come, as new episodes will air sometime 2026 on Disney Channel and eventually Disney+. Their return to SDCC is one for the books and we can anticipate future visits!
