Smiling Friends Officially Ending After Season 3, Hadel and Cusack Confirm

Smiling Friends is officially coming to an end. In a candid video message, creators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack confirmed via YouTube on Adult Swim’s channel that the animated series will conclude with Season 3, marking the close of a show that grew far beyond what either of them expected.

“This is not a bit. This is not a joke,” Hadel says at the start of the announcement, making it clear that the decision is deliberate, final, and coming directly from the two people who built the series from the ground up.

The pair explain that after finishing Season 3, they both simultaneously felt “burnt out” but also “accomplished.” Years of nonstop work left them feeling like they had reached a natural and meaningful endpoint.

Cusack notes that from the very beginning, their internal philosophy was to put “100 or 110 percent” into the show and then “go out on top,” rather than risk overstaying their welcome. They emphasize that continuing the series while exhausted or handing it off to other writers would compromise the quality that fans expect.

“It’s not fair to us and it’s not fair to the audience to give you guys slop,” Hadel says, adding that the show is too personal and too hands‑on to outsource. “It’s just not that kind of show.”

Both creators stress that the decision wasn’t the result of network pressure or behind‑the‑scenes conflict. After informing Adult Swim, the network responded with full support, telling the duo to take a break and return only if and when they genuinely felt inspired again.

“They said, ‘If you’re not feeling making a cartoon, we’re not going to stop you,’” Cusack recalls. The door remains open for future specials or additional episodes if the creative spark returns, but no promises are being made.

To avoid setting false expectations, they felt it was better to state cleanly and definitively that Season 3 is the ending point.

Despite the series ending, fans won’t have to say goodbye just yet.

Hadel and Cusack reveal that two additional episodes will air on April 12 at 11 p.m. on Adult Swim. These episodes are part of Season 3, bringing the total to 10 episodes: the eight already released plus these two “little stragglers.”

The creators emphasize these are not thematically tied to any overarching conclusion; they’re simply extra stories that didn’t land within the earlier release window. “Maybe you’ll like them, maybe you won’t,” Hadel jokes, before stressing that they hope fans enjoy the final bits of the world they built.

The creators admit recording the announcement was emotionally challenging. The series became far bigger than either of them imagined, with fan art, costumes, memes, and an enthusiastic audience that helped turn the show into a phenomenon.

They take time to praise the crew repeatedly, urging viewers to “hire all of our crew,” calling them the ones who brought this “insane project” to life.

The video ends with both creators acknowledging how surreal the journey has been and how grateful they are for the support. Despite the sad news, they stress that this is not the end of their partnership or their individual artistic work—just the end of Smiling Friends as a series.

In the final moments, Hadel closes the announcement with a simple sign‑off: “As the little cartoon guy said, that’s all, folks.” The final two episodes of Smiling Friends will air on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block on April 12th, streaming next day on HBO Max.