Hulu Orders Steve Martin & Martin Short Comedy, Renews Wu-Tang Series

Hulu has ordered a straight-to-series comedy from Steve Martin and Martin Short and renewed its original series Wu-Tang: An American Saga and Dollface, the company revealed at its TCA presentation.

The untitled series from Martin, Short and 20th Century Fox Television is about three strangers who share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one. It hails from co-creators and writers Martin and John Hoffman (Grace & Frankie, Looking). Martin and Hoffman will also executive produce, along with This is Us creator Dan Fogelman, Jess Rosenthal (This is Us) and Short.

Following a successful first season, Hulu has renewed Wu-Tang: An American Saga. Based on one of the most influential groups in hip-hop, the series chronicles the history and formation behind the music group as they deal with the daily struggle of balancing their music career amidst the drug-induced early ’90s. The series is created and written by Alex Tse and The RZA and executive produced by Brian Grazer, Tse, The RZA, Method Man, Francie Calfo and Samie Kim Falvey.

New episodes of Dollface come to Hulu after a first season that proved the best performing new binge series for subscriber engagement amongst Hulu originals in 2019. The comedy series follows Jules (Kat Dennings), a young vibrant woman who is dealing with the aftermath of being dumped by her boyfriend. With a broken heart, Jules battles her own imagination in order to literally and metaphorically re-enter the world of women, with friendships she left behind and the new battle of dating post-breakup.

Hulu has strengthened its kids’ slate as well as part of a new multiyear streaming deal. As a new home to future slates of DreamWorks Animation feature and library films, as well as brand-new original series, Hulu unveiled the first three premieres to be Hulu originals in 2020: Madagascar: A Little Wild, TrollsTopia and The Mighty Ones. Loveable foursome Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo go on wild adventures in Madagascar: A Little Wild after they land at the Central Park Zoo. TrollsTopia, meanwhile, will be a new original based off the famous Trolls franchise following Poppy and other enchanting characters from the upcoming feature film Trolls World Tour. The Mighty Ones follows the hilarious adventures of a group of creatures: a twig, a pebble, a leaf and a strawberry, who live in an unkempt backyard belonging to a trio of equally unkempt humans whom they mistake for gods.

Hulu also announced the premiere dates for the upcoming Hulu originals The Great, Ramy and Solar Opposites. From Oscar-nominated writer Tony McNamara (The Favourite), The Great debuts on Hulu on Friday, May 15. The comedy series chronicles the genre-bending, anti-historical ride through 18th-century Russia and follows the wildly comedic rise of Catherine the Great. The series stars Elle Fanning as Catherine.

The Golden Globe-winning actor Ramy Youssef returns to Hulu for his critically acclaimed performance in the Hulu original comedy series Ramy. All ten episodes of the new season will debut on Friday, May 29. The series follows first-generation Egyptian-American Ramy Hassan (Youssef), who is on a spiritual journey in his politically divided New Jersey neighborhood. Alongside Youssef, the new season will also have a special guest star, two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Mahershala Ali.

Co-created by Justin Roiland (Rick & Morty) and Mike McMahan (Rick & Morty, Star Trek: Lower Decks), Solar Opposites centers around a family of aliens from a better world who must take refuge in middle America. They disagree on whether Earth is awful or awesome. All eight episodes of the series will debut on Hulu on Friday, May 8.

Also in the company’s lineup of upcoming original programming are Little Fires Everywhere from Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, High Fidelity starring Zoë Kravitz, the documentary Hillary and the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel Normal People.

“Hulu’s success in original content is driven by highly curated programming from world-class talent,” said Craig Erwich, senior VP of originals at Hulu. “From the Steve Martin project, second series orders of Ramy and Dollface, to shows like Little Fires Everywhere, our momentum in original content is stronger than ever.”