Announced on Feb. 25 by creators and stars Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel, “Smiling Friends” will be ending after its third season.
The announcement came in a video uploaded to Adult Swim’s various social media accounts, where Hadel said, “I’m gonna cut right to the chase. This is not a bit, this is not a joke. Michael and I are here to announce that ‘Smiling Friends’ will be ending after Season 3 is done.”
“Smiling Friends” premiered with a pilot episode on April 1, 2020. About a year later, on May 19, 2021, Adult Swim ordered a full season, which later premiered on January 10, 2022. The show received critical acclaim for its writing, humor, and animation, and Adult Swim quickly renewed it for a second season on Feb 9, 2022.
The second season premiered on April 1, 2024, and was renewed for its third season two months later on June 13. The third season was first shown at the Annecy Film Festival on June 11, 2025, where it was also announced that “Smiling Friends” was renewed for a fourth and fifth season.
The show has now been canceled by the creators, with them saying, “To be perfectly honest, after we finished Season 3, Zach and I just both had the same feeling where we felt pretty burnt out after putting years and years into this, but also pretty accomplished. We just came to this feeling where we were like, ‘I think that could just be it,’ after Season 3.”
While it is certainly sad to see this beloved show come to an end, it’s better than it running season after season, with people wondering why it’s still going on.
It’s also good to see that it’s the creators ending the show instead of them being canceled by their network. There have been many shows in recent years that have been canceled too soon. Adult Swim actually told Cusack and Hadel, “If you’re not feeling like making a cartoon, we’re not going to stop you. Go have a break. Either come back or don’t.”
Cusack and Hadel have not dismissed the possibility that they will come back for more “Smiling Friends” in the future, but right now they don’t want to make that promise to the fans. They say that if they find inspiration in the future, if they know they can make something that the audience will enjoy, they will come back and make a special or new episodes.
Two unreleased episodes of Season 3 will be released on April 12, with Hadel clarifying that these episodes are “not finales,” but rather “little stragglers” that didn’t make it into the release of the original season.
I have not watched Smiling Friends myself, but have heard about how good it is from friends and the Internet. Watch all of “Smiling Friends” on Adult Swim and let me know what you think of the show ending down below, or message me on Instagram @zachfornalmedia.
