‘Solar Opposites’ EPs Say Season 6 Still Waiting For Hulu’s Greenlight: “We Don’t Have Any News”

Solar Opposites executive producers Mike McMahan and Josh Brycel are currently in production for Season 5 of their hit animated show on Hulu and recently premiered their Valentine’s Day special on Feb. 5, 2024. But despite the visible support they’re receiving from the streamer, the duo are still waiting for the greenlight to start working on Season 6. 

“We could keep making Solar forever. We have more that we want to do with The Wall. We have other things we want to bring in. We have a lot more stories, a lot more funny stuff,” Mahan told Decider on a Zoom call. “We don’t have any news on a sixth season yet.”

Season 5 received a speedy renewal in October 2022, almost a year prior to the release of the fourth season, which premiered in August 2023. 

“We’re still working on Season 5,” the co-creator continued. “Season 5 is gonna be coming out sometime later this year. It is fucking hilarious. So, one step at a time. But we love Solar and we would love to make more seasons. We would love to make a big Solar movie.”

If McMahan and Bycel’s movie ambitions come to fruition, Solar Opposites would follow in the footsteps of The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers — both of which have released award-winning movies to positive reception from fans and critics.

Bycel added, “We could make this show for a long time. We have lots of stories to tell and the world keeps getting crazier, so we might as well have our aliens to comment on it.”

Going into production for Season 5, the executive producers have lingering feelings about the release of Season 4. “Our big bummer last year was that we were on strike and we couldn’t do promotion,” McMahan shared. “We wanted to go out and talk about the season. We wanted Dan [Stevens] on promotion, but they were all on strike as well. So, we couldn’t really have anybody go out and talk about the show.”

The latest season of Solar Opposites premiered on August 14, 2023 amid the Writers Guild of America and the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and saw British actor Dan Stevens replacing Justin Roiland as Korvo in the core cast. While the transition was seamless in the universe of the show, the change still elicited some panic from longtime viewers. 

“First thing I’ll say is that I love seeing people talk about Solar Opposites online. Let’s all keep doing that. Everybody should go online and talk about Solar Opposites. Let’s get it trending,” McMahan said. “But also, I think the way Rick and Morty handled [the voice actor change] was really interesting. Those guys do an amazing job. I worked there for six years and I can’t hear the difference.”

Roiland, who held creator and voice acting roles on Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites, was ousted from both shows at the same time following accusations of sexual assault and domestic violence. Rick and Morty replaced Roiland with soundalikes whereas Solar Opposites brought Stevens onto the cast and introduced a fitting storyline that involved Korvo getting hit by a voice-changing ray.

“We didn’t want to do a simulacrum of the voice. We wanted to do something big and crazy, because Solar is big and crazy. We were thrown for a loop on that. Then we met Dan [Stevens] and he loves the show. He brought a crazy flavor to it. It was sort of a double-edged sword because people were gonna react no matter what. But at the end of the day, if you watch the season and you see how great it is, that’s all that really matters to us,” McMahan explained.

“No matter what choice you make, people are going to be complaining. Let people complain on the internet – it’s the perfect place to complain. We still love making this show and we’d love people to watch it. We highly recommend having a British alien in your life,” he continued.

Bycel added, “Even if people miss the old voice…you can like both. There’s no reason you can’t like both.”

McMahan, who also created Star Trek: Lower Decks, joked, “By the way, you want to see people complaining about an animated show? Make a Star Trek cartoon!”

An Earth Shattering Romantic Solar Opposites Valentine’s Day Opposites Special is currently streaming on Hulu.