Jake and Elwood Blues are coming back, but not how you might remember them.
According to Deadline, an animated series based on the SNL musical sketch, band and then cult John Landis movie The Blues Brothers is in development. The project is being developed by original Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd (Elwood), John Belushi’s (Jake) widow Judy Belushi and Bento Box Entertainment (Bob’s Burgers, Brickleberry, The Awesomes). No network is attached as of yet, but the series will be shopped around town starting this month.
The series, similar to the film, will follow Jake and Elwood Blues on their musical misadventures throughout the city of Chicago. It sounds like the show will take a page from the Flight of the Conchords book, with each episode featuring a classic blues soundtrack, Blues Brothers songs and songs recorded just for the show.
As Aykroyd described the series, “The show will be the Blues Brothers living in America and utilizing all new technology to make and promote their own records, seek out and record new artists and avoid law enforcement – and all while fighting for truth, justice and a better breakfast sandwich.”
Considering Aykroyd’s involvement in the project, it will be interesting to see if he ends up voicing Elwood in the series or not. John Belushi, who passed away in 1982, will obviously not be voicing the character he made so iconic on Saturday Night Live and in the film. His absence has been addressed in the past, with John Goodman taking over the part of Jake opposite Aykroyd in 1998’s Blues Brothers 2000.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time that bringing the Blues Brothers to television in animated form has been attempted. It was announced in 2011 that Aykroyd and Belushi’s widow were pitching an animated take on the musical siblings. Even further back, in 1997, Aykroyd and Judy Belushi had gotten an animated Blues Brothers series set up at UPN, but the eight episodes that were actually made never got on the air.