Everybody Hates Chris Animated Series - What We Know So Far

Acclaimed and beloved as it was, Everybody Hates Chris came with a predetermined shelf life. The esteemed comedy series about Chris Rock's toilsome teenage years joined the ranks of canceled 2000s sitcoms after its season 4, simply because the show was always set to end before Chris becomes a comedian at 17 years old. Imagine everyone's surprise, then, when the news dropped that Everybody Hates Chris is coming back in an unexpected way: as an animated series.

Of course, the more you think about this development, the more it makes sense. Everybody Hates Chris is full of cartoonish and memorable characters — yet, even more crucially, it has plenty of heart to counterbalance the goofiness. As such, it might just be the perfect property to bring into the animated domain, especially since Rock himself is already on board, as well as the original show's co-creator Ali LeRoi and executive producer Michael Rotenberg. Sounds interesting, right?  So, without further ado, here's what we know about the Everybody Hates Chris animated series' release date, cast, and plot. 

As The Hollywood Reporter tells us, the new animated reboot of Everybody Hates Chris is still "in the works" and doesn't have an official release date. In fact, it doesn't even have a buyer yet, though the studio behind the project, CBS Studios, is reportedly planning to seek one out pretty soon. As such, it's very, very difficult to tell when the show will see the light of day.

That being said, the facts that the live-action Everybody Hates Chris was highly acclaimed, and that Rock and other key people are attached to the new project, greatly help the animated version's chances of getting greenlit sooner rather than later — and knowing this, it's possible to figure out a ballpark estimate of the release date. Per Variety, another major CBS Studios animated project, Star Trek: Prodigy, was greenlit in April 2019 and is set to premiere in 2021 on Paramount+. Knowing this, and assuming that Everybody Hates Chris gets the green in 2021, we can probably expect the inaugural season of young Chris' animated adventures to drop sometime in 2023.

Happily, one of the most important elements of a show focusing around the early exploits of Chris Rock is reportedly set to return, as Rock himself is expected to resume the role of the show's narrator in the Everybody Hates Chris animated series. Apart from him, though, it's anyone's guess who the show will cast in the voice roles.   

In the interest of pure speculation, though, there's no reason why the majority of the adult cast couldn't return in the voice cast. With Brooklyn Nine-Nine coming to an end after its upcoming season 8, Terry Crews might have an animated show-sized gap in his work schedule — and who better to voice Chris' penny-pinching father, Julius, than the actor who originally portrayed him?  Tichina Arnold was fantastic as Chris' mother Rochelle, and the show's vast cast of major and minor recurring characters would certainly work well with their original actors providing the voices. Ernest Lee Thomas as Mr. Omar or Whoopi Goldberg as Louise Clarkson, anyone?

However, the inevitable passage of time means that we're unlikely to hear the now very adult Tyler James Williams reprise his role as young Chris. Likewise, you can probably expect new actors for the rest of the child roles. 

Since the Everybody Hates Chris animated series is still at early development stages, actual plot lines are yet to surface. Still, because the show is being developed as something of a reboot, it makes sense that it likely follows the general beats of the live-action version. As such, expect plenty of humiliation and disastrous experiences for young Chris, as well as lots of humorous interaction with his frugal father, overbearing mother, siblings, friends, and the many curious characters in his neighborhood.

Of course, this is an animated show, which means that there are all sorts of possibilities for more action-packed and imaginative plots than the live-action version ever had. Since CBS Studios has plenty of animation experience on the sci-fi front, it's probably fair to expect that the show won't be afraid to include the occasional fantastical plot element, as well — though it's unlikely that we'll see the Rocks zoom about in a spaceship, at least outside dream sequences.