Get ready to hate Mondays and love lasagna all over again. Everyone’s favorite orange tabby, Garfield, is clawing his way back to the screen… and he’s got a new voice.
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According to Deadline, Paramount+ has greenlit a new 2D-animated series starring comedian and New Girl actor Lamorne Morris as the voice of the sardonic cat.
The show, tentatively (and somewhat predictably) titled Garfield, is being produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios and draws inspiration from Jim Davis’s original comic strip. It will reportedly feature the famously chunky feline in all his sarcastic, lazy glory. Dave H. Johnson (Middlemost Post) and John Trabbic III (SpongeBob SquarePants, Middlemost Post) are on board as executive producers.
According to Deadline, the new Garfield series has been in the works for a while. The project first started in 2019 when Nickelodeon’s parent company at the time, Viacom, acquired the rights to the cartoon from Paws, Inc. and announced plans for a new animated series.
As part of the deal, Viacom (now Paramount) acquired the global merchandising rights for Garfield. Since then, the character has appeared in various Paramount products, including apparel, toys, and Nickelodeon games like All-Star Brawl and Kart Racers, where he was voiced by Frank Welker.
This Will Mark Garfield’s First TV Outing Since 2009
Meanwhile, the animated series has been in development for seven years. This is the first new Garfield series since The Garfield Show, which Paws, Inc. produced in 2009. The series ran for five seasons in the U.S. on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, with Welker also voicing the title character.
Of course, Alcon/Sony has a 3D CGI animated Garfield feature franchise starring Chris Pratt as the voice of the beloved cat. The first film, The Garfield Movie, was released in 2024. The company set plans for a sequel, with Pratt set to reprise his role, last year.
Since its debut in 1978, Jim Davis’s syndicated comic strip has documented the lasagna-fueled life of the titular cat, his perpetually bewildered owner Jon Arbuckle, and the lovably dimwitted dog, Odie. According to Deadline, the Garfield brand boasts an impressive following, with over 200 million daily readers still enjoying his cynical antics in comic form and millions more following his exploits on social media.
Meanwhile, Morris, the new voice of Garfield, won an Emmy for his role in Season 5 of FX’s Fargo. He will next star opposite Nicolas Cage in Prime Video’s Spider-Noir. He’s currently in production on the fourth Jumanji film.