HBO Max has ordered a 12-episode season of a new animated series called Young Love, based on the Oscar-winning short film Hair Love. Like the film, the series will be created by Matthew A. Cherry, who will also serve as showrunner alongside Carl Jones. Sony Pictures Animation will handle the, err, animation.
The heartfelt and bittersweet short film follows a young father as he attempts to do his daughter Zuri’s hair for the first time.
This animated series will reportedly expand on the family introduced in the short, and will be “an honest look into the world of the Young family – including millennial parents Stephen and Angela, their daughter Zuri and her pet cat Rocky – as they juggle their careers, marriage, parenthood, social issues, and multi-generational dynamics all while striving to make a better life for themselves”.
“I am beyond excited to continue telling the story of Stephen, Angela and Zuri and further explore the family dynamics of a young Black millennial family we established in our short film Hair Love as an animated series”, Cherry said in a statement. “Couldn’t ask for better partners in Sony Pictures Animation and HBO Max in helping us get Young Love out to the world”.
This is great news. Hair Love was one of the most beloved shorts of recent years, and it will be cool to see how Cherry and co. expand it into a show. HBO Max is a great home for Young Love too, as the streamer has already strongly committed to animation with the new Looney Tunes shorts, the Adventure Time miniseries and the Studio Ghibli library.
We’ll wait and see if other collaborators from the short return for the series, like director Bruce W. Smith, who’s busy readying a Proud Family reboot for Disney+. Issa Rae voiced the mother in the short, but it’s unclear if she’ll return for the series, although she already has a working relationship with HBO, so it’s possible.
#Peace.Love.YoungLove
