SDCC 2018: Matt Groening’s Disenchantment Is Game Of Thrones Meets The Simpsons

The man behind such favorites as The Simpsons and Futurama, Matt Groening, has a new show coming out on Netflix called Disenchantment. In order to hype up the show prior to its release, they held a panel at San Diego Comic Con bringing along some creatives and the majority of the voice cast.
A trailer was played at the beginning to introduce the audience to this world. Afterwards, creator Groening, showrunner Josh Weinstein, and cast members Eric Andre and Nat Faxon came out. Groening has always been a fan of fantasy and wanted to create a whole new universe to play in.  It will be his first program with a female lead and the first time he will be doing a serialized format though each episode can stand alone.

A clip was then played showing main character, Princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson) initially meeting her own personal demon, Luci. Weinstein wanted to focus on having the princess be a realistic 19-year-old facing the world for the first time.  Luci is played by Andre and he considers the character to be the devil on Bean’s shoulder.
They then introduced the character of Elfo who is from Elfwood and goes out into the world for the first time. Faxon, who voices the character, described him as feisty but with a lot of heart. Another clip was shown with Elfo walking into the middle of a battle between gnomes and ogres. You can sense his innocence and inexperience based on his commentary and actions during the melee.
Though she could not make the panel, Jacobson did appear via prerecorded video. She apologized for her absence but it was inferred that she was busy working on the new season of Broad City. Her partner in crime, Ilana Glazer, even made a brief cameo.

Many of the cast from Futurama where then brought on stage including John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LeMarche, Billy West and David Herman. All of them will be on the show assuming the roles of various characters.  DiMaggio will play Bean’s father, King Zok. In order to create the voice, he imagined gargling concrete. MacNeille will be playing both Una, Bean’s stepmother, and Bean’s stepbrother. For Una, MacNeille was told to use an Eastern European accent.
A character LeMarche will be playing is a prime minister who serves as Bean’s babysitter/fixer. When you hear him, fans will think of Kiff, one of his previous roles. Herman will voice many side characters including Harold the Herald and Old Man Touchy. A third clip was shown of the main trio stealing and using drugs from Una and going on a bender. They make bad decisions and end up robbing the family grave site.
Many Easter eggs and mysteries are embedded into the show from the start. During the production process, the creatives plotted it out like a drama and added jokes afterwards. There will be cliff hangers and an overall deeper, big story in the first season. Groening and Weinstein enjoyed the flexibility Netflix granted them with regards to episode length compared to TV. They weren’t on such a strict 20-minute time line and the episodes vary from 25 – 37 minutes.
Disenchantment will appear on Netflix for your binge-watching pleasure on August 17, 2018. The first season will be 10 episodes. Groening has done great things with the traditional family sitcom and science fiction so I can’t wait for his take on fantasy.