HBO renews ‘Animals’ for third season
HBO once saw promise in an odd little animated project that turned city-dwelling animals into anxious, talkative stand-ins for human neuroses. The network renewed Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano’s series for a third season after its Sundance origins and early buzz, but the story did not stretch on forever.
The premise stayed consistent across the run. Matarese and Luciano focused on rats, pigeons, and other creatures navigating New York City’s noise, loneliness, and moral gray zones. Each half-hour episode mixed deadpan conversations with the occasional burst of absurdity, all voiced by a rotating cast of recognizable names.
Renewal and Production Background
HBO announced the third-season renewal in May 2017. Season 3 premiered on August 3, 2018, and wrapped on October 5, 2018. The series began as an independent short that screened at Sundance in 2015. Duplass Brothers Productions helped develop the concept into a full show, and Starburns Industries supplied the distinctive hand-drawn animation style also seen in Rick and Morty and Anomalisa. The original two-season order reflected HBO’s early confidence in the tone and format.
Guest Stars
Seasons 1 and 2 featured an eclectic lineup of guest voices that included Jessica Chastain, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, Emilia Clarke, Jason Alexander, Andy Dick, Whoopi Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Jon Lovitz, Ben Schwartz, and Adam Scott. Episode guides for Season 3 show additional per-episode voices, keeping the tradition of surprise casting alive through the final batch of stories.
Series Cancellation and Conclusion
HBO canceled the series in October 2018 shortly after the Season 3 finale aired. No fourth season was ordered. The decision closed the book on the show after three years of ten-episode seasons, leaving the creators free to pursue other projects while the existing episodes remained intact for later viewers.
Total Series Run and Episode Count
Across its lifetime, Animals produced thirty episodes. Each of the three seasons contained ten installments. The premiere aired in February 2016 and the last episode landed in October 2018, giving the series a compact but complete arc that never stretched past the original creative vision.
Streaming Availability
All thirty episodes currently stream on Max. The platform carries the full catalog without edits, allowing new audiences to watch the series in order from the first awkward rat conversation to the final pigeon existential crisis. Occasional promotional posts have also surfaced on other services, though Max remains the primary home for uninterrupted viewing.
Expanded Executive Production Team
Production credits list Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass as executive producers alongside Matarese and Luciano. James Fino, Joe Russo, and Kenny Micka served as producers, with Jen Roskind credited as co-executive producer. The Duplass brothers’ involvement helped secure the initial HBO pickup and shaped the tone that carried through all three seasons.
Animals never became a long-running franchise, yet its short run captured a specific slice of urban anxiety filtered through talking wildlife. The completed series now sits on Max for anyone curious about the awkward small talk, moral ambiguity, and existential woes that defined its New York City creatures.
