Nostalgia shows its face once again. The cult classic cartoon Samurai Jack which ran from 2001 through 2004 is being resurrected more than a decade after its original run. The show is getting new life on Cartoon Network’s night time block Adult Swim. According to the announcement video, new episodes will premiere sometime in 2016.
Samurai Jack is about a character of the same name who is transported to the future by the evil Aku where the villain reigns supreme. Fans of the show are ecstatic about Jack’s return because the show never received a proper conclusion due to its cancellation. The resurrection feels more genuine than pandering because the show’s creator Genndy Tartakovsky actively wants to return to Jack’s world and give a resolution to the story he was never able to finish. This is contrast to Nickelodeon’s new cartoon block The Splat which seems to be just trying to capitalize on 90s kid nostalgia.
It isn’t often that a creator is given the opportunity to go back to one of their creations that was cancelled. Samurai Jack had previously found new life in a comic by IDW Publishing. However, that was more of a picking up of the mantle by fans who loved the show, and never held much consequence to the canon of the animated show. However, with the return of the show to its original medium of animation it is almost guaranteed that this will be more than just fan service.
I’ll leave you with the final words from the teaser trailer: “Jack is back”.