“Primal” is almost back. Genndy Tartakovsky’s critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning series, which ran in 2019 and again in 2022, returns to Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block in 2026 — but this time, there’s a twist. If you want to go in fresh or haven’t seen the previous two seasons, consider yourself warned.
The second season of “Primal” ended with our central character, a caveman known as Spear, dying in battle. Fang, his dinosaur companion, had baby dinosaurs and, in a brief flash-forward, we see Spear’s daughter and Fang and her children growing up together. The finale was, ultimately, hopeful but seemingly close-ended; if “Primal” returned, it would likely feature some other scenario with brand new characters.
But no.
As revealed in the new teaser, which was part of a New York Comic Con presentation, Spear has actually returned and he’s back from the dead. That’s right – he’s a zombie. TheWrap talked to Tartakovsky about the bold decision and what could be next for the series, as the creator also provides updates on “Unicorn: Warriors Eternal” and that “Black Knight” leak.
Initially, Tartakovsky wasn’t going to bring Spear back. He said that he started working on a completely separate idea, maintaining the concept that “Primal” could be an anthology series that could house disparate stories within it. Tartakovsky was intrigued by the idea of making a new phase about “creation” and noodled around on an idea involving space aliens coming to life in a strange new environment. “It wasn’t clicking,” Tartakovsky said. He started reading online comments following the Season 2 finale, all expressing sadness at the loss of Spear and the (supposed) end of the narrative.
“I started to think about it, like, What did I do? I spent 20 episodes trying to get people to love these characters, just like with any show, and then I kill him. Maybe it was too early, because, for me, it’s an eternity, in a way, making it, but for you and everyone watching it, it’s like this,” Tartakovsky said.” I thought, Well, I make a mistake? Let me think about it. And then all of a sudden, this thing pops up – wait, maybe there’s a way around it. It’s a fantastical idea and it’s totally pulpy, which I loved about it.”
And there was precedent – in the Season 1 episode “Plague of Madness,” the idea of zombies is introduced. It all started to click. “The more I thought about it, the more my gut was like, yeah, this is something new and nobody’s going expect it and it’s going to flip the script on everything,” Tartakovsky said. The previous concept, with the space aliens creating new life, was abandoned. Zombie Spear was, instead, embraced wholeheartedly.
When asked if he was nervous about veering off into uncharted territory, he said this was the only real path forward – he didn’t want the series to follow the adventures of Spear’s daughter (“That felt too young for me”) and he wanted to maintain the series’ built-in unpredictability. “This is a great twist and it totally feels like the show. If you love Season 1 and 2, there’s no reason not to like this. It’s emotional, it’s action-y, it’s crazy,” Tartakovsky said.
He did, however, admit to having a “crisis of confidence” after the muted response to his R-rated comedy “Fixed,” which debuted on Netflix earlier this year. He said that the negative response to the trailer and the fact that the movie “didn’t land the way I thought it was going to land” caused him to step back and assess the situation. “It gave me a little pause like, Oh, like, my instincts were a little off,” Tartakovsky shared. “Everything that I’ve done, it’s been positive, right across the board and this one was more controversial.”
As such, in the lead-up to this new season of “Primal,” Tartakovsky has been fretting. “It’s like, are people going to question ‘Primal?’ No, I don’t think so. It’s true to the story. This is a very natural continuation of what’s been happening.”
While he wouldn’t elaborate on how Spear comes back to life (or the timeline of when he returns), there is inherent drama in the concept, because Fang and her babies are alive. “It’s coming. Eventually they meet, and perhaps something is different between them,” Tartakovsky teased.
Tartakovsky also said that he’s most excited about how different the mood is this time around, even though it takes place in the same pulpy “Primal” world we’ve come to know and love. “We’ve cracked a different vibe, a different feel to it. The action is great,” he said. While he’s not particularly a fan of the horror genre, he said that he always finds himself doing something closer to horror than he would ever watch. With dealing with Zombie Spear, they got to “change up the choreography,” with the team asking themselves, “How does a zombie fight?”
He then paused, wondering if he should give away this element of the new season and decided to do it anyway.
“He’s not aware of who he is,” Tartakovsky teased. “He’s a zombie, so he has no memory of what has come before. That part really opened up the doors for us a lot. Does he have memories? Does he not have memories? Are they flashes of bits or do things remind him of things of his past?”
Tartakovsky further said that if the second season was about “finding your place amongst man,” then this season is “finding humanity in death.”
If “Primal” made an unexpected return, could his other Adult Swim series, “Unicorn: Warriors Eternal,” which aired back in 2023 (and ended in a cliffhanger), also come back? “We have conversations about it. I think there’s interest from Adult Swim to do more. I just have to figure out — I don’t believe it’s a midnight show,” Tartakovsky said, referring to the show’s 12:01 a.m. timeslot (when the show was announced in 2020, it was meant to be a more mainstream, all-ages Cartoon Network show). “That’s how it came out. And I don’t know if people found it more on Adult Swim or more on HBO Max. I have to figure out where the audience is and then seeing if there’s interest to do it.”
A week ago, Tartakovsky pushed forward another dream while releasing a short teaser for his un-produced “Black Knight” project, which was first announced in 2018 at Sony Pictures Animation and has languished in development hell ever since. It was an unprecedented move (he had briefly released the teaser to his social media accounts on New Year’s Eve many years prior), one meant to drum up interest and excitement in the project and to force Sony to actually, you know, make it.
“It’s just sitting there and nobody’s pushing it. I’m proud of the test, I’m proud of what we have,” Tartakovsky said. He pointed to “KPop Demon Hunters,” which is different than “Black Knight” but still more adult, and the success of the “Demon Slayer” anime movie, plus the success of Sony’s own “Spider-Verse” movies. “This audience is there. So I wanted the audience to speak, to say, ‘Yes, we’re here for something like this.’ And they’ve spoken.”
Obviously the outcry was strong, although it wasn’t as passionate as something like when test footage from “Deadpool” was leaked online (and later revealed to have been released by Ryan Reynolds himself). With “Black Knight,” Tartakovsky said, it’s “a real original IP.” But the question remains: “Can the audience speak loud enough?” And can that vocal response translate into the movie officially moving forward?
At least we know that “Primal” Season 3 is coming. It will arrive on Adult Swim and HBO Max in January 2026.
