‘Hazbin Hotel,’ ‘Helluva Boss’ Studio SpindleHorse Producing An Animated Pilot For ‘Homestuck’

Vivienne “VivziePop” Medrano’s indie animation studio SpindleHorse (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss) is working on an animated pilot based on Andrew Hussie’s Homestuck. Revealed over the weekend at Animate Orlando, the announcement was accompanied by a trailer, seen below. The pilot is set to premiere on YouTube next month.

Homestuck boasts a creative team with strong roots in both indie and mainstream animation. Leading the production are Skye Henwood (director/writer), Mel Shin (storyboard director), Ben Jones (animation director), and Hone (art director), with Richard Horvitz serving as voice director and Medrano as executive producer. On the performance side, Toby “Radiation” Fox voices John Egbert, joined by Cherami Leigh as Rose Lalonde, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Jade Harley, Adam McArthur as Dave Strider, and Brandon Winckler as Karkat Vantas.

The original Homestuck comic, which ran online from 2009 to 2016, became a landmark of web-based storytelling, eventually mixing comics, animation, chat logs, and interactive elements into an intricate and often surreal narrative. Translating such a sprawling property into a single-episode animated format is a considerable challenge, one well-suited to SpindleHorse’s track record.

For Medrano, the move marks another step in a career that is changing the rules in indie animation. Her rise from self-produced YouTube content to a Prime Video pickup of Hazbin Hotel was driven by a fiercely loyal fanbase and a crowdfunding model that bypassed traditional studio gatekeeping. SpindleHorse’s in-house production pipeline and strong online distribution strategies position it uniquely to handle a fan-driven property like Homestuck.

While no streaming partner has been announced, industry watchers will note that SpindleHorse’s previous successes have attracted significant platform interest after building initial buzz on YouTube. If the pilot resonates with fans and manages to translate Homestuck’s notoriously intricate narrative, this could be the beginning of another unconventional path from internet cult favorite to mainstream animation.