Fire up the Vince Guaraldi music: new Peanuts specials and series are headed to Apple. Charlie Brown, Snoopy and all the other giant-headed children will be headed to Apple’s upcoming streaming service. New specials include short-form STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) content, featuring Snoopy in space.
According to Deadline, Apple has signed a deal with DHX Media to produce new Peanuts content, including new series, specials and shorts inspired by the comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz back in 1950. In the decades since their funny pages inception, Charlie Brown and the gang have evolved to star in TV specials, movies, and even plays. As recently as 2015, the characters appeared in their own feature film, The Peanuts Movie.
The Peanuts Movie
The new specials will have an educational bent, including “original short-form STEM content that will be exclusive to Apple, featuring astronaut Snoopy.” This is yet another big addition to Apple’s constantly-growing original content. For almost the entire year, news has been trickling in about new original programs intended for Apple’s upcoming streaming service. Titles include The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Reese Witherspoon, and more; a thriller from M. Night Shyamalan; an “innovative drama” from La La Land director Damien Chazelle; Are You Sleeping, with Octavia Spencer as a podcaster who reopens a cold murder case; Little America, an immigrant-centric show from the writers of The Big Sick; an Amazing Stories reboot, and many more.
Most of the titles announced so far seem to be geared toward adult viewers, but the Peanuts content is clearly going to be more family friendly. Peanuts remains iconic, and the prospect of new material will no doubt appeal to audiences of every age. I have a soft spot for the characters myself. While I can’t say I ever paid much attention to the comic strip when it was running, I was a big fan of two particular Peanuts specials – the Halloween-themed It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and A Charlie Brown Christmas, featuring a killer jazz score from Vince Guaraldi. As far as I’m concerned, no other currently existing Peanuts specials can measure up to these particular titles. Maybe the new Apple content will change that.
The plan – as of now – is for the Apple streaming service to be free for anyone using an Apple device – which is a pretty sweet deal, all things considered. There’s no concrete date yet, but rumor has it the Apple streaming service will launch sometime in 2019.
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