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Samurai Jack will bring his quest back to Cartoon Network in 2016

Four-time Emmy winning animated series Samurai Jack will return to Cartoon Network next year.

Adult Swim announced the news in a six second teaser on YouTube but revealed little else about the new season. Its unclear if the show will keep the same voice actors and writing and directing team. The first four seasons featured the voices of Phil Lamarr (MADtv), Oscar nominee Mako Iwamatsu (The Sand Pebbles), John DiMaggio (FuturamaAdventure Time), and Sab Shimono.

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The series, which initially ran for four seasons between 2001 and 2004, told the story of a samurai called (as you might have guessed) Jack, whose goal is to travel back in time and defeat the demon Aku. Animator Genndy Tartakovsky, whose credits also include Dexter’s Laboratory and the 3D CGI George Lucas-produced television series Star Wars: Clone Wars, will produce the new season.

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While Samurai Jack left the air due to low ratings, its comeback follows a recent resurgence of interest in the show. “I feel like it’s culminating to a fever pitch almost.” said Tartakovsky to ComicBook.com in September. “I feel like it’s time to maybe finish the story. We’ve been trying to get the feature off the ground but maybe that’s just fate’s way of saying this is a television thing and maybe it should be a mini-series or something like that.”

Since the Samurai Jack left the airwaves, the Russian-born Tartakovsky has helmed another TV series in Cartoon Network’s Sym-Bionic Titan (in 2010), as well as the profitable Sony films featuring the voice of Adam Sandler, Hotel Transylvania and Hotel Transylvania 2. The latter was just released in September and a third film in the series has already been announced.

In Cartoon Network news, the network’s property Adult Swim recently announced a workplace comedy called Dream Corp, LLCwhich will be produced by The Office’s John Krasinski and Stephen Merchant.

Chris Leo Palermino
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…
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