Regular Show now is in the works on coming back with a brand new animated series, and the new sequel really needs to be sure to just have a good time if it wants to really succeed. Regular Show came at a very pivotal time for Cartoon Network. The network was in the midst of launching a whole new era in the 2010s, and it was just on the cusp of a monumental success with hits like Adventure Time. As Cartoon Network was bouncing back from its experiments with live-action releases, it really was in need of some hits that could have the same impact as originals released in the 90s and 00s.
Thus Regular Show came around at a perfect time. It was also a sort of a generational release as well as older animation fans were drawn back to Cartoon Network due to the other layers that their newest generation of shows had. Because while they offered wacky entertainment and humor, this generation had more success with serialization and telling longer stories pieced together over time. Regular Show even has an ending that felt fairly conclusive, and thus any sequel approaching this would be best off to just avoid all of that entirely. Be a sequel that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but also doesn’t throw out what made the original work.
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Regular Show’s Sequel Has the Right Idea
That seems to be the idea that Regular Show is going with for its official sequel series. According to a job listing spotted for the now in production follow up, the new series is reportedly being developed with the working title of “Regular Show Lost Tapes.” This title implies that the new series is going after the idea of potentially not taking place after the events of the original series’ ending, but will feature instead “lost” adventures that allow Mordecai and Rigby to return to their daily lives at the park in their early 20s. Because at the end of the series, it was all revealed to be a “Regular Show” that Pops was watching on a cosmic VHS tape.
This “Lost Tapes” title likely refers to the cosmic being watching more of the tapes from the series, and thus it will allow the creative team to jump back into the series without worrying too much about the state of the canon. It’s likely going to lose some of that emotional character develop that fans saw steadily increase over the course of the series (as Mordecai and Rigby’s journeys indeed came to an end) as a result of this, but it’s still the best route to go for a sequel as it’s hard to imagine Regular Show without Mordecai and Rigby as they were in the original.
Mordecai and Rigby Shouldn’t Change
Mark Hamill previously teased that he would be returning in the new Regular Show series as Skips, but it’s hard to gauge the sequel based on a returning Skips overall. If these new episodes are taking place in between the events of the original series, Skips would be around. And he’d also be around in the same way if it took place years later since he doesn’t change much anyway. He’s a utility character, and it’s entirely different from how the sequel will need to use Mordecai and Rigby. Unfortunately for the rest of their friends, Mordecai and Ribgy have to go back to being maladjusted adults.
The biggest appeal of Regular Show was seeing how Mordecai and Rigby would get into its wild shenanigans because of their young impulse. The series ended with the two of them growing into fine adults with their own families, and a sequel just can’t do that. It can’t be entirely different and introduce new characters for their roles, Regular Show needs Mordecai and Rigby as they are. Even with how much the two changed as the seasons went on, they still got into wacky adventures as a result of their own follies.
It’s the core of Regular Show that Mordecai and Rigby’s “regular” lives are upended by the wild things that happen in any given episode. Sometimes it’s something innocuous like trying to make a viral video, or something huge like stealing Benson’s grilled cheese eventually getting them shot into space, but it’s all Mordecai and Rigby. If Regular Show’s sequel is going to work, it can’t be the older versions of them. They have to return as the somewhat sorry twenty somethings we love.