A Metalocalypse Movie Is Coming
Metalocalypse, Adult Swim’s animated show about the enemy-of-the-world metal band hated by the world’s governments. Metalocalypse premiered in 2006 and ran for 4 seasons with a musical special premiering in 2013. Recently though, HBO Max announced that three Adult Swim shows would be getting full length movies launching on the platform. The other shows outside of Metalocalypse to have movies premiering are Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Venture Bros. All of the productions mentioned above are some of the older, most beloved shows on the network. Regardless of if you’ve heard of Metalocalypse, as a fan of metal and comedy, it’s a great show. Below, we’ll go over further details of the show as well as all known information on the upcoming movie.
Metalocalypse’s Original Run
As stated earlier, Metalocalypse started its run on Adult Swim in 2006 and ran until 2013. Created by musician Brendon Small, who plays the voice of almost every member of Dethklok itself. The fictional band consists of the following strangely named musicians: William Murderface, Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Nathan Explosion, Pickles, and Toki Wartooth. The members of Dethklok are very memorable and have their own extreme personalities, to say the least. While the band for the show is fictional, the songs and the band behind Dethklok are very much real. Dethklok has albums, tours and DVD specials showcasing their music that’s been created for and inspired by the show. Brendon Small plays all music for Dethklok except for drums, except for their live shows where he’s vocalist and guitarist.
The Band Behind Metalocalypse: Dethklok
Dethklok is a real band with real musicians created for and inspired by the events on the show. Although they are based on animated characters, the creator of the show also plays the songs as a live member. Bands like The Black Dahlia Murder and All That Remains have shared the stage with Dethklok. If you’ve never seen the show, you may have heard one of Dethklok’s songs on the Guitar Hero games. The band is featured on several Guitar Hero games such as the song Thunderhorse in Guitar Hero 2. Laser Cannon Deth Sentence and Bloodlines are songs featured in Guitar Hero 5: Warriors of Rock. The band also has a song in the Jack Black voiced video game Brutal Legend with Murmaider.
Metalocalypse Musical Special
Following the end of season 4 of Metalocalypse, the show got a final release in the form of a musical episode. The musical episode in the form of a 47 minute rock opera movie entitled The Doomstar Requiem. The special was released as a soundtrack as well which featured songs in the movie. While the co-creator of the series did not return for this special, others recorded the parts of Toki Wartooth and William Murderface. Other actors and musicians such as Jack Black and Mike Keneally appeared in the movie as additional voices. Brendon Small provides the singing voices of Dr. Rockso and Murderface in lieu of co-creator Tommy Blacha.
Upcoming Metalocalypse Movie
As stated above, as well as a new Metalocalypse movie, movies from other Adult Swim franchises as well are going to be made into movies. These movies will be available to watch on HBO Max as they have a the Adult Swim catelog available via the platform. While no details on the movie have come out, Metalocalypse band Dethklok have performed shows and festivals since the end of the show with the release of The Doomstar Requiem.
While The Doomstar Requiem was expected to be the end of Metalocalypse, the special ended with a cliffhanger thus it left the show’s future open ended and ready for more story to be introduced. Brendon Small attempted to get a “final chapter” created with the help of fans with Adult Swim but the network denied. By title alone it appeared that this was meant to be the end of Dethklok, in television at least. The title of this apparent ending was to be Metalocalypse: The Army of the Doomstar – The Final Chapter.
While I’m excited for this Metalocalypse special to come to HBO Max, I do hope that it isn’t another entirely musical special. I did enjoy the original musical special and but I would like to see a normal hour long special. Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Venture Bros movies are individual reasons to be excited as well being as all three shows had a cult following. While no premier dates have been set but I don’t expect it to be too long before we get at least one of them. Announcements like this keep my hopes high on future productions of lost Adult Swim and other networks shows that deserve some more story.