'Everybody Still Hates Chris' Animated Revival Still Happening, Reveals Cast Bringing Back Tichina Arnold And Terry Crews
'Everybody Still Hates Chris' Animated Revival Still Happening, Reveals Cast Bringing Back Tichina Arnold And Terry Crews
Tim Johnson Jr. is the new Chris Rock in the animated series coming to Comedy Central
It’s been more than a thousand miles of a lifetime, but Terry Crews and Tichina Arnold are headed back to the old neighborhood, kicking back as the Rocks. Comedy Central’s Everybody Still Hates Chris, the animated revival of the UPN and CW series Everybody Hates Chris has announced its cast, including Crews and Arnold back to voice Chris Rock’s parents Julius and Rochelle.
The revival, which will see Rock continue as narrator and executive producer, was announced to be in development in March 2021, and then assured production by August 2022. CBS Studios, Chris Rock Enterprises and 3 Arts Entertainment produce. Sanjay Shah, whose previous work includes South Park and Central Park, is sole showrunner and an executive producer, alongside Ali LeRoi, Michael Rotenberg and Dave Becky. Both series’ stories are “inspired by his experience growing up as a skinny nerd in a large working-class family in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, during the late 1980s.” Rock said in a statement “I’m very excited to introduce the world to another funny side of my childhood.”
Crews, who between iterations started in Are We There Yet? and Brooklyn Nine-Nine while landing hosting duties for America’s Got Talent and its concurrent spinoffs, plays dad Julius the “gentle giant with a relentless work ethic, and cheap. He grew up dirt poor, so he knows the cost of everything down to the penny. He works two jobs to support the family, and on his days off, he takes on a third job.” Arnold, currently starring on CBS’s The Neighborhood, returns as mom Rochelle, described as “smart, strong-willed, and has a nurturing spirit, but she can also be hot-headed, especially when it comes to her kids. She tolerates zero nonsense, so she quits more jobs in a month than most people do in a lifetime.”
With the original kid cast of Abbott Elementary’s Tyler James Williams starring as Chris, Tequon Richmond as his brother Drew, Imani Hakim as sister Tonya, and Vincent Martella as best and only school friend Greg, it was apparently untenable for them to reprise as their voices. So now it’s Tim Johnson Jr., whose previous work includes Disney Channel’s Saturdays, who will voice young Chris, described as “a nerd who wants to be cool but he’s outshined by his younger brother, tortured by his little sister, and foiled by his cheapskate dad.” Ozioma Akagha will voice the feisty Tonya, who has “the face of an angel and the heart of a demon, who gets along with her middle brother Drew but leaps at any chance to get Chris in trouble.” Drew himself will now be voiced by Terrence Little Gardenhigh, coming off of Nickelodeon’s Danger Force, and is described as the “golden child of the family who is the epitome of Black Excellence: handsome, athletic, a ladies man, taller and cooler than his older brother Chris.” Gunnar Sizemore, who voiced Bao in Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, will voice Greg, who is “girl-obsessed, status conscious and raised by a single dad.”
This latest update is good news for Comedy Central who is rebuilding its originals slate after it had drastically dwindled in the 2020s. On top of more South Park, Digman! had been its only partner for a while. Originally, the Beavis and Butt-Head revival ran on Comedy Central for second-run, premieres will be moving from Paramount+ to the network for season 3 next year. Everybody Still Hates Chris will arrive first however later this year, and will not be next-day on Paramount+, instead arriving later.
Source: Variety