It's great to be passionate about animated series in this first half of 2025. Shortly after the teaser for the revival of The Amazing World of Gumball – renamed The Wonderfully Bizarre World of Gumball for the occasion – Cartoon Network continues its nostalgic streak with an announcement that we didn't see coming. Five years after the broadcast of the epilogue series Steven Universe Future, the universe imagined by Rebecca Sugar is back with a spin-off series of the utmost importance. It was during a conference held at the Annecy festival that Warner Bros Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe unveiled Steven Universe: Lars of the Stars. If you haven't seen the original series, beware of the spoilers that follow!
Lars's space adventures finally told
Fans of Steven Universe have grown accustomed to unanswered questions and other bits of the storyline being omitted. But if there's one thing that still sticks in the craw, it's the wasted potential of Lars' character. In the fifth season of the original series, the odious Lars finally commits an act of ultimate bravery by sacrificing himself to protect Steven and the "defective" Gems from the tyrannical Diamonds. Grieving the loss of this longtime friend, Steven's magical tears miraculously resurrect Lars, who now shares the same characteristics as the boy's strange pet Lion: pink skin and hair.
Steven is then able to teleport to Earth via Lars's hair and Lion's mane, and is forced to abandon the young adult on the hostile Gem world, on the other side of the cosmos. A few episodes later, we discover that Lars has become captain of the Off-Colors, a crew of rebellious Gems determined to disrupt Homeworld. A long absence then follows, and he eventually returns to Earth with his fellow adventurers after a long journey. This Albator-style quest was unfortunately never developed on screen, the series already having difficulty telling its main story without shortcuts.
But the spin-off series Steven Universe: Lars of the Stars will finally correct this. The new show promises to explore “the past, present, and future of the world of Steven Universe” by chronicling the adventures of Lars and the Off-Colors, who will uncover “the darkest secrets of the fallen Gem empire.” The series is expected to take place after the events of Steven Universe and Steven Universe Future, in order to deepen the franchise’s lore, while revisiting Lars’s beginnings as captain.
Where and when can you watch this new series?
For now, Steven Universe: Lars of the Stars does not yet have a release date. We do know, however, that the series is being produced exclusively for the Prime Video platform. Between Gumball on Hulu and Steven Universe at Amazon, it seems like Warner Bros. is trying to remove Cartoon Network from Max, but that's a whole other debate. The Annecy conference also provided some details regarding the next season of the Adventure Time spin-off, Fionna and Cake, which will focus on the duo's original universe and no longer multiverse stories.
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