Travis McElroy Offers a Bittersweet Update on The Adventure Zone Animated Series

The fate of The Adventure Zone animated series is one that’s long been a subject of speculation among fans of the McElroy family’s raucous actual play podcast. Unfortunately, Travis McElroy issued a final moratorium on the Peacock adaptation.

In 2020, two years before the successful first season of The Legend of Vox Machina, The Hollywood Reporter published Peacock’s plans to adapt The Adventure Zone’s beloved Balance campaign into an animated series. At the time, the tabletop podcast had already started its first adaptative journey with the eponymous graphic novel series, illustrated by Carey Pietsch. Between the graphic novel and the tangential development of The Legend of Vox Machina at Amazon Prime Video, an Adventure Zone animated adaptation felt like a certified slam dunk for McElroy fans. Unfortunately, there was a long period of radio silence regarding the development of the Dungeons & Dragons series at Peacock, leading fans to fear the worst.

During a recent interview with The Escapist, middle McElroy brother and Magnus Burnsides player character Travis McElroy officially confirmed that the development of The Adventure Zone animated series has fallen through at Peacock. “There are a couple reasons,” McElroy elaborated on the show’s fate, “but I would say the biggest factor was issues related to the pandemic and the impact it had on the entertainment industry”.  That being said, the Big Dog prescribed hope by adding, “we have a version of the series in our back pocket that we really love and would be excited to revisit it at some point!”

Related: All Adventure Zone Campaigns, Ranked

The Adventure Zone is but one pillar within the McElroy family’s sprawling podcast empire, with the flagship advice show My Brother, My Brother, and Me previously receiving a series adaptation at the now-defunct Seeso. Though regrettably short-lived, the My Brother, My Brother, and Me streaming series gifted McElroy fans classic moments such as the brother’s collective descent into madness at Safety Town and the nightmarish Clown Box.

Since both Seeso and Peacock are owned by NBCUniversal, the news about the fate of The Adventure Zone animated series may not come as a surprise to McElroy fans who felt shortchanged by the company in the past. Here’s hoping the alternative version of The Adventure Zone series teased by McElroy eventually finds a home that’s an ideal fit, akin to Prime Video’s ongoing partnership with Critical Role.

Read our full conversation with Travis McElroy about The Adventure Zone, The Twenty-Sided Tavern, and, of course, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 here.