Adult Swim Greenlights Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Heist Brothers,’ Highlights Upcoming Slate In Annecy

Adult Swim has made a habit of using Annecy to telegraph where its animation slate is headed, and this year’s presentation continued that tradition with a mix of new series, franchise anniversaries, and creator showcases.

The biggest announcement was a straight-to-series order for Heist Brothers, a new action-comedy from Genndy Tartakovsky with a history at Annecy that we’ll get into below. Adult Swim also unveiled two new Robot Chicken specials, announced a five-part documentary celebrating Cartoon Network’s 35th anniversary, and offered fresh looks at several upcoming originals, including My Two Cars, President Curtis, and the second season of Common Side Effects, which we highlighted in detail after its Work in Progress presentation earlier in the week.

Heist Brothers has taken an unusually public road to production. Tartakovsky first pitched the project live onstage during Adult Swim’s Annecy presentation in 2024, when it was little more than a rough concept. Last year, it resurfaced under the working title Heist Safari. Now, it has officially been greenlit as a 10-episode series produced at Cartoon Network Studios.

The official logline is characteristically sparse. The series follows three frog brothers attempting to rob a bank. Beyond that, Adult Swim is keeping the details under wraps, teasing only that “the execution is special as !#&$??!!!!”

For Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen, backing projects like Heist Brothers reflects the network’s longstanding philosophy of betting on artists rather than trying to reverse-engineer commercial concepts.

“We buy more into the creator than the concept, always,” Ouweleen told Cartoon Brew during a one-on-one chat in Annecy. “We’re basically looking at whether it’s new. Is it different? Would anyone else do this? If the answer is yes, we’re kind of like, maybe that’s not for us.”

That creator-first approach was evident throughout the presentation. Rather than centering established franchises, much of the showcase focused on filmmakers developing original work.

Joe Pera and Dan Licata returned to Annecy with the first public screening of the pilot for My Two Cars, while attendees also got another preview of season two of the acclaimed Common Side Effects. Adult Swim also confirmed that President Curtis, the Rick and Morty spinoff, will premiere on the network on July 26 before streaming on HBO Max the following day.

The studio also announced that Robot Chicken will celebrate Adult Swim’s 25th anniversary with a half-hour special premiering on August 30. The episode imagines characters from across the network’s history gathering aboard a cruise ship before the festivities inevitably descend into chaos. A second Robot Chicken special was also teased, currently in production for 2027, which will commemorate Cartoon Network’s 35th anniversary by parodying the network’s classic characters and series.

That anniversary will extend beyond stop motion. Adult Swim announced a five-part documentary series chronicling Cartoon Network’s evolution from a repository of classic cartoons into one of television’s defining creator-driven animation studios. According to the network, the series will combine archival material with newly filmed interviews from artists and executives who shaped both Cartoon Network’s programming and its distinctive identity.

Adult Swim’s high-profile announcements painted a picture of a network that remains committed to original creator-led animation while continuing to mine its own legacy through anniversary programming and documentary projects. As Adult Swim approaches its own quarter-century milestone, Annecy once again served as a reminder that the network sees discovery as central to its future, whether that means giving Genndy Tartakovsky another ambitious original series or introducing audiences to the next generation of unique storytellers.