Adventure Time premiered on Cartoon Network in April 2010 and ran for ten seasons before concluding in September 2018, growing into one of the most acclaimed animated series ever on the strength of the offbeat brotherly bond between Finn the Human (voiced by Jeremy Shada) and his shape-shifting adoptive dog, Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio). Creator Pendleton Ward’s Land of Ooo continued well past that finale, expanding through comics, video games, and a series of follow-up shows that kept the cast in front of audiences for years afterward, with the franchise now being a recurring fixture for multiple generations. Adventure Time: Side Quests, a companion series that returns to Finn and Jake’s earliest years together, is the newest of those follow-ups, and its next batch of episodes just landed a release date.
Hulu revealed the Season 2 premiere date for Adventure Time: Side Quests alongside brand-new key art, confirming that all 20 episodes will drop as a single batch on October 2nd. The artwork shows Finn (voiced by Sasha Knight) and Jake (voiced by DiMaggio) soaring above the kingdom as treasure and medieval weapons spill out of Finn’s backpack. The turnaround puts barely three months between seasons, and Season 2 matches the size of Season 1, bringing the series’ total episode count to 40 since Side Quests premiered on June 29th.
Because the fun never ends for two best friends. Season 2 of #AdventureTime Side Quests streams on Disney+ and Hulu in the U.S. October 2. pic.twitter.com/g0XH8uqCLM
Set earlier in the Land of Ooo’s timeline than the original series, Side Quests follows a younger Finn and Jake through standalone, self-contained scrapes rather than the long-form arcs that later seasons of the franchise have leaned on. The structure mirrors the loose rhythm of Adventure Time’s earliest seasons, prioritizing quick comedic detours over the show’s ongoing mythology. After working in the original series, showrunner Nate Cash developed Side Quests for Cartoon Network Studios as a lighter companion piece that can be enjoyed by newcomers and veterans alike, and so far the series has been a delightful return to Ooo. In addition to the leading stars, Season 2’s voice cast also brings back Tom Kenny as Ice King, Hynden Walch as Princess Bubblegum, Olivia Olson as Marceline, and Niki Yang as BMO, ensuring the most important characters of the original run are still represented in the revival.
Side Quests is only the most recent addition to a franchise that has steadily multiplied since 2018. HBO Max released Adventure Time: Distant Lands between June 2020 and September 2021, four hourlong specials that followed BMO, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum, Peppermint Butler, and a reunited Finn and Jake through standalone stories set after the series finale. Warner Bros. Discovery has since greenlit Adventure Time: Heyo BMO for Cartoon Network and Adventure Time: Bubblegum and Marceline for HBO Max, while Side Quests lives on Disney+ and Hulu. Finally, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake offers a different version of the Ooo universe. Developed by Adam Muto for Max, the series follows gender-bent counterparts of Finn and Jake named Fionna Campbell and Cake the Cat, characters first introduced in a 2011 episode as fan fiction written by Simon Petrikov, the human form of the Ice King.
Adventure Time: Side Quests Season 2 premieres on Disney+ and Hulu on October 2nd.
