Comedy Central is expanding its repertoire of adult animation with a spin-off of the MTV classic Daria, Deadline has reported. The spin-off will focus on and be named after the character of Jodie, who will be played Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish).
The original Daria was a spin-off of MTV’s flagship adult animated series Beavis and Butthead. The titular character Daria debuted in Beavis and Butthead as an exceptionally smart woman to act as a foil against the indescribably dumb Beavis and Butthead.
MTV ordered a spin-off focusing on Daria to boost their female audience and the series would go on to run for 70 episodes and 2 made-for-TV movies across 5 seasons from March 1997 to January 2002. Daria followed the titular character as she navigated high school, poking fun at the realities of life as a teenager, such as cliques and popularity. Daria’s antisocial and critical tendencies gave the series a satirical edge, but the character made many friends throughout the shows’ run.
Most notably, Daria’s friend Jodie became a breakout character. As an African-American woman, Jodie felt ostracized by both the lack of diversity at high school and the pressure from her parents to overachieve. Jodie was originally voiced by Jessica Cydnee Jackson (Lilo and Stitch). The new Jodie series will explore similar topics but with a new premise. Instead of high school, the show will follow Jodie as she enters the professional world immediately after graduating college.
Jodie was originally announced in 2018 as Daria & Jodie, and is the first in a line of Daria spin-offs to be greenlit. The nature and synopsis of these other spin-offs are unknown. Grace Edwards (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) will serve as the head writer and Ross will also serve as executive producer for the series. While the series has entered production, it is unknown when it will air.
The series will be produced by MTV Studios but air on Comedy Central, a result of both channels being owned by ViacomCBS since 2003. The original Daria is available to stream in its entirety on Hulu.