Home Channels Hit-Monkey Lives: Second Season Premieres On Hulu July 15

Hit-Monkey Lives: Second Season Premieres On Hulu July 15

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He was never supposed to survive. Hit-Monkey was the very last gasp of the Ike Perlmutter era of Marvel, in which the TV and film divisions were handled separately and the connections between the two were much looser. The arrangement produced Agents Of SHIELD for ABC, several TV-MA rated shows for Netflix, and two cartoon shows for Hulu — but it was meant to be four.

The cartoon deal was the very last thing Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb ever made happen before he was fired and Marvel Television itself was no longer a unit. Each show was to focus on a Marvel “misfit” — MODOK, Hit-Monkey, Howard The Duck and Tigra & Dazzler. Then they would all unite in one crossover called “The Offenders,” a play on the Netflix Marvel crossover “The Defenders” which had just come out.

Weeks later, Kevin Feige would take over Marvel’s TV production and half of the Loeb cartoons would be cancelled. MODOK and Hit-Monkey were allowed to be completed, but MODOK’s debut in 2020 performed poorly both in numbers and with critics. Hit-Monkey felt like a dead show walking before it even premiered.

Then a wild thing happened. Hit-Monkey worked.

The show’s title character is a Japanese snow monkey who vows revenge after the Japanese Yakuza is responsible for the slaughter of his tribe. He teams up with Bryce, the ghost of an American assassin who knows his way around the underworld, and the pair systematically hunt down the mob one target at a time. In the meantime Hit-Monkey finds a new friend, and maybe a new home, with kindly businesswoman Akiko. But hope of that is dashed in the final ten minutes when the monkey executes his final target: Akiko’s father.

Yes, it’s about a monkey wielding a katana, but it’s done very well. The show’s surprising level of drama and quality made me sad, because I knew the chances of it living beyond one season were unlikely. But enough of you watched Season One that Hulu decided to give it a second shot! Good for you!

The entire voice cast from the first season (which was three years ago, yikes) will return for the second, including Fred Tatasciore as Hit-Monkey, Jason Sudeikis as Bryce, Olivia Munn as Akiko and Ally Maki as Tokyo policewoman Haruka. Leslie Jones and Cristin Milioti will join the cast as two new characters.

Season Two of Hit-Monkey hits Hulu July 15. If you haven’t seen the first season, or you just forgot what happened in it, find some time in between The Bear episodes — you won’t regret it.

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