9 years have passed since Samurai Jack got back to the past...
Now we just gotta get The Cartoon Network back to the past!
A lot of stuff happened during this period from 2025 to 2026, but I fear that much of them are concerning issues of the animation industry today.
Anyway, during this time:
Star Wars: Clone Wars season 3 (or volume two) turned 20 years old
Samurai Jack returned in the HBO Max original special CN vs Jellystone! Crisis on Infinite Mirths, which made its linear TV premiere on Cartoon Network on May 25, 2025; unfortunately since then it hasn't been rerun, and there were no special promos or social media posts about the special. Phil LaMarr reprised his role.
Pre-2016 episodes of The Powerpuff Girls reran occasionally on CN, mostly for their Super Summer lineup (as a gimmick to quietly promote the James Gunn Superman movie); PPG 2016 is also 10 years old.
Cartoon Network's "CHECK it." branding turned 15 years old on May 29, 2025.
A new Genndy Tartakovsky series called Heist_Safari is in development for [adult swim]; it's the first to carry the WBEI (Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.) copyright due to Cartoon Network Studios folding into Warner Bros. Animation in relation to WB owning Turner.
[adult swim]'s block Checkered Past temporarily went off the air after June 27, 2025 and miraculously returned on December 29, 2025; the first show aired upon this is Dexter's Laboratory.
Toonami rebranded again on June 29, 2025 (viewed as the night of June 28) after their Saturday Morning Entertainment System-inspired branding lasted for over 3 years.
Fixed (a film whose story wasn't originally Genndy's but was "fixed" with elements of his own story and personal experience added in addition to its stunning art) was released on Netflix on August 13, 2025. The feature-length 2D animated film, which is rated R for STRONG CRUDE SEXUAL CONTENT AND LANGAUGE THROUGHOUT, BRIEF DRUG USE AND SOME VIOLENCE, was received with criticism (along with its trailer red-banded by the MPA) mostly for its formulaic story and less for its highly offensive content. It features a stellar crew, however, which was harbored by Renegade Animation (one of the film's layout artists, Jim Soper, deactivated his Twitter/X account earlier this year).
Genndy Tartakovsky has test animation for Black Knight shared on Instagram to spark interest in production to convince Sony Pictures Animation to have the film greenlit.
Nelvana (after whom the Nelvaanians in Star Wars: Clone Wars are named, since they produced the first animated Star Wars content) was misreported to shut down on August 28, 2025 at the beginning of September 2025, but, on September 2, 2025, it was revealed by Corus Entertainment that they had production halted to focus on distribution of their existing IPs and the merchandise thereof.
Season 3 of Genndy Tartakvosky's Primal was teased on October 3, 2025 with the first look at New York Comic Con [NYCC] 2025's panel (which credited Genndy for creating Sym-Bionic Titan among other shows). It was released on January 11, 2026, which was announced on November 2025, and is set for a blu-ray release in June 2026. Genndy also hosted an AMA ("Ask Me Anything", except for spoilers) on Reddit for the series on February 25, 2026. The Season 3 opener also aired on Genndy Tartakovsky's 56th birthday, January 17 (during the middle of the night which [as] would read January 16 but also at the start of January 18 on Toonami, which the network's schedule would officially read Jan. 17).
On January 30, 2026 Deadline announced that Genndy Tartakovsky is working on a Game of Thrones spin-off called Nine Voyages, which was previously set to be a live-action series but is now to be animated.
Sony Pictures Animation wants to do more work with Genndy Tartakovsky.
I also realized that I already used this GIF for the 5th year passing, but I took awhile to compile the events worth mentioning and it was almost midnight by the time that I posted this...
The issues of the animation industry and other related CN news I'll address later in this post. I'm also aware that I'm not finished with my personal reviews on Samurai Jack season 5 on this site, though those episodes haven't been rerun since January 2023, but in the meantime you can read on what relative events happened with each year passing since Season 5 ended:
Highlights of Year Passing 1
Highlights of Year Passing 2
Highlights of Year Passing 3
Highlights of Year Passing 4
Highlights of Year Passing 5 (to be finished)
Highlights of Year Passing 6 (to be finished)
Highlights of Year Passing 7 (should be finished)
Highlights of Year Passing 8 (also should be finished)
Oh, and, when I promised you that Jack would be back, I totally meant it!
