It’s official: Mystery Science Theater 3000 is being revived — at Netflix.
The streaming giant has landed the revival following a successful Kickstarter campaign, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The news will be officially announced Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con during a panel for the revival.
Netflix will debut the series in what it said is the “not too distant future,” with MST3K to be available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K.
Shout! Factory acquired the rights to the cult hit in November and teamed with series creator Joel Hodgson for a new incarnation of the cult favorite. At the time, Hodgson hoped the Kickstarter campaign would raise at least $2 million — enough to make three new feature-length episodes — with an ultimate goal of $5.5 million, the amount needed to make a full season of 12 episodes. The campaign in fact raised $5.7 million, ranking as the highest-funded film and TV crowdfunding campaign in history, and MST3K will now be back for a new 14-episode season.
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Hodgson will be involved in writing and all facets of production of the revival. The episodes will feature a new host, Mads (aka “mad scientist”), and new movies to riff on. DIY queen Felicia Day will take on the role of mad scientist Kinga Forrester, daughter of one of the show’s original villains, Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu). Patton Oswalt will portray Son of TV’s Frank; comedians Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn are set as the two voices of the show’s robotic sidekicks; and Nerdist podcast co-host Jonah Ray is the lead host. Community‘s Joel McHale and showrunner Dan Harmon are also attached as writers. Mary Jo Pehl (who played Pearl Forrester), Bill Corbett (who played Crow T. Robot) and Kevin Murphy from the original cast will reprise their roles in the new series.
Elliott Kalan, the Emmy-winning former head writer of The Daily Show, will serve as the head writer on MST3K. The series is exec produced by Hodgson, Richard Foos, Bob Emmer, Garson Foos, Jonathan Stern, Harold Buchholz and Elliott Kalan as well as Satellite of Love, Alternaversal Productions and Abominable Pictures.
MST3K premiered in 1988 on a local station in Minnesota before going on to air on Comedy Central for six seasons, concluding in 1997. Then Syfy picked the show up for another three seasons until its final cancellation in 1999 after nearly 200 episodes. The series, featuring a man and his robot sidekicks, riffed on B-movies as part of an “experiment.”
The show won a prestigious Peabody Award in 1993 and was nominated for two Emmys as well as a Cable ACE Award. It was included in Time‘s 100 Best TV Shows of All Time list in 2007.
For Netflix, MST3K comes as the streaming giant is investing an impressive $5 billion in original programming this year alone. The series joins a slate that also includes Marvel’s Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, The Defenders and Punisher as well as a Lost in Space revival, Dear White People, Chuck Lorre’s Disjointed, Stranger Things, Alias Grace with Zachary Levi and Jeff Daniels’ Godless, among others.
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