The Cuphead Show! Netflix series gets snazzy extended trailer and release date

We finally have received a closer look at The Cuphead Show!, the upcoming animated Netflix series based on the 2017 acclaimed 2D action platformer Cuphead. The show pays homage to the surreal and exaggerated animation styles of the jazz age cartoons that Cuphead evoked back in the game. Fortunately for fans, we don’t have long to wait for the show to debut.

The Cuphead Show! will release with a dozen 12-minute episodes at launch. The show is described as “a character-driven comedy series”, following the misadventures of Cuphead and his pal Mugman in the Inkwell Isles. Star of still in-development DLC The Delicious Last Course, Ms. Chalice, will also prominently feature. We also see appearances from several of the game’s notoriously challenging foes, such as Ribby and Croaks, Grim Matchstick, King Dice and the Devil.

While the basic premise of the game seems to be present in The Cuphead Show!, where Cuphead and Mugman end up gambling their souls against the Devil at a carnival, the show appears to be downplaying the serialised storytelling of modern TV shows in favour of the simpler gag-focused episodic cartoons of the 1930s and 40s. The game’s creators, Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, are serving as executive producers, alongside veteran animation producers Dave Wasson (Mickey Mouse Shorts) and Cosmo Segurson (Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling).

Netflix has had a pretty good track record with its adaptations of popular video game properties, both in live-action and animation. We will have to wait and see if Cuphead can work as a modern animated show, but this trailer makes it seem like a fun time. The first 12 episodes of The Cuphead Show! will debut on Netflix on February 18th 2022.