As Netflix continues to lean into the realm of adult animated comedies, the streaming platform is proud to announce the voice cast for Mulligan, an upcoming series from the team behind Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The order for 20 episodes of Mulligan gained approval from Netflix in March 2020, shortly after the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The concept is from co-creators Robert Carlock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt writer and executive producer Sam Means.
Per Netflix’s official logline, “After Earth is destroyed by an alien attack, a rag-tag band of survivors has to start society over from scratch. It’s an opportunity to learn from humanity’s past mistakes and get things right this time. Or make the same mistakes all over again. Probably the second one.”
Series regulars include Nat Faxon, Chrissy Teigen, Tina Fey, Sam Richardson, Phil Lamarr, and Dana Carvey. Meanwhile, Kevin Michael Richardson, Ayo Edebiri, Daniel Radcliffe, and Ronny Chieng join the production in recurring guest roles.
Carlock and Means executive produce and co-showrun Mulligan, with Fey executive producing. David Miner, Eric Gurian, Scott Greenberg, and Joel Kuwahara also executive produce. Universal Television is teaming up with Fey’s Little Stranger Inc, Carlock’s Bevel Gears, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Bento Box Entertainment, the geniuses behind Bob’s Burgers, Paradise PD, Housebroken, and more.
You can find full character descriptions for Mulligan below:
Nat Faxon is “Matty Mulligan” – A working-class everyman from Boston, Matty single-handedly saved Earth from the alien invasion. Still, now he’s in way over his head as the leader of (what’s left of) humanity. The only thing he wants more than to be loved by everyone is to win over Lucy, but both will require him to actually think about someone other than himself for once.
Chrissy Teigen is “Lucy Suwan” – Lucy had a whirlwind romance with Matty during the attack, so she’s now the de facto First Lady. Except they just met, and they have nothing in common. A beauty queen who believes deeply in the America you see in beer commercials, she wants to use her newfound influence to actually help fix the world if she can figure out how.
Tina Fey is “Dr. Farrah Braun” – Dr. Braun is a Military super-scientist and single mom. She’s still trying to “have it all” as a working mother but is still being dismissed as just a “female scientist” in a world that really shouldn’t have time to bother with that stuff.
Sam Richardson is “Simon Prioleau” – Simon is the only surviving historian and one of Matty’s top advisers, even though Matty thinks he’s a useless nerd. Desperate to save what’s left of human history before it disappears, he’s also eager to take this new opportunity to reinvent himself as a confident, cool guy. It’s not working, though. No one is buying the fedora.
Dana Carvey is “Senator Cartwright LaMarr” – The self-appointed Vice President, LaMarr is a simpering, scheming, political animal who is anxious to rebuild everything just how it was when guys like him were in power. He is forced to contend with both Matty’s apathy and Lucy’s empathy to govern how he wants to, but his power is dependent on Matty’s popularity, so he has to continue to prop him up for now.
Phil LaMarr is “Axatrax” – A dignified general; Axatrax is the only alien survivor of the invasion and is now a prisoner of the intellectually inferior humans who defeated him. Imprisoned in the White House bowling alley, he becomes an unlikely “shoulder” to cry on for Matty, but he may just be buying time until he can signal for a second invasion.
Recurring Guest Stars
Kevin Michael Richardson is “TOD-209” – TOD-209 is a military cyborg developed for the Pentagon by Dr. Braun but deployed to fight the aliens before he was fully ready. He now spends his days trying not to break things and remembering snippets of his human past. Was he a musician?!
Ayo Edebiri is “General Scarpaccio/Jayson Moody” – “General Scarpaccio” was an aimless teenager, Jayson Moody before he found a Marine general’s uniform on a corpse and put it on. He’s now the head of the Joint Chiefs, which means he gets to do cool stuff, like shooting guns and flying helicopters.
Daniel Radcliffe is “King Jeremy” – Jeremy Fitzhogg is the party-boy son of an English Lord who was working in the British Embassy when the aliens attacked. Still, everyone in America thinks he’s smart because of his accent. And when he realizes he’s the last surviving British citizen, he declares himself King.
Ronny Chieng is “Johnny Zhao” – Johnny Zhao is a Hong Kong billionaire who spent the attack partying with models on his yacht. After coming ashore in D.C., he teams up with LaMarr to make money matter again in a world that doesn’t need it.
With star power and a proven writing team behind Mulligan, Netflix could have another animated hit. I’m excited to see a trailer for Mulligan and learn more about the series’ tone. Twenty episodes is a significant order by any measure, making me think that Netflix has a lot of confidence in Carlock and Means’ animated project.
Are you interested in learning more about Mulligan? We’ll post the trailer when it drops and report more information as it happens. In the meantime, feel free to sound off in the comments if you’re looking forward to checking out this new series.