From the minds of Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Bill Lawrence comes a second season of Max’s animated series Clone High. The clones are back and ready to get more in love and in more trouble in a show that takes history’s greatest figures and sends them back to school.
Season two (technically season three, given the fact that this is a revival of the 2002/2003 series) was recently announced, with a trailer giving fans a glimpse into what madcap adventures they can expect from the upcoming season. If any of you had a grinding baby Patrick Swayze on your bingo cards, you can cross it off.
The show was initially conceived back in the 1990s, while Lord and Miller were students at Dartmouth. It was produced by MTV, with the first season airing between 2002 and 2003 before being shelved, and its characters put on ice, literally. Thanks to a cult following and decent critical reception, the show was thawed out 20 years later, returning to screens in May of 2023 with a two-season deal with HBO Max.
The offbeat cast of characters returned, barring Gandhi (whose portrayal caused quite the controversy and a hunger strike by certain groups in India), with many of the original cast back in their respective roles. The show’s revival synopsis reads,
“Clone High follows a high school for clones of the greatest minds in history. Twenty years after the original experiment was put on ice, Joan, JFK, Abe, and Cleo have been thawed out to resume school with their new clone classmates – all while navigating a new set of cultural norms and overly dramatic teen relationships.”
What further madness can we expect from season 2?
The recently released trailer shows us that the clones are still not very impressed with Joan. After a mental snap, Joan decides to “lone wolf” it. In order to make it into Clone High College, she sabotages all her friends in the final death maze to make it to the end, only to discover that there is no Clone High College and that they were all in an experiment to prove the clones’ selfish, self-centered natures—the perfect combination to make world leaders.
Now Joan must regain their trust, and she has a long way to go, especially in a world as absurd as Clone High. We see new romantic attachments being formed as it appears that Joan is moving on from her former love and is seen strutting around the halls with a social media-loving Confucius. They’re still trying to figure out who they are, separate from their biological, historical origins, which will further drive the drama, and hilarity, of the next season.
Who is providing the voices for these historical, bizarre characters?
Most of the original cast of the initial 2002 season returned to their respective roles for the reboot, with the exception of Christa Miller, who had originally voiced Cleopatra but has shifted to Candide Sampson, with the Egyptian queen now voiced by Mitra Jouhari.
Returning stars include Will Forte (Abe), Nicole Sullivan (Joan), Phil Lord (Scudworth), Chris Miller (JFK and Mr. B), Ayo Edebiri (Harriet), Vicci Martinez (Frida), Kelvin Yu (Confucius), Neil Casey (Topher Bus), and Donald Faison (George Washington Carver).
The second (third) season will also include the voices of guest stars, including Jermaine Fowler, Paul F. Tompkins, Stephen Root, Jackée Harry, Hannah Simone, D’Arcy Carden, Randall Park, Jameela Jamil, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Richard Kind. They will bring to life some more colorful characters, including Toussaint Louverture, Nostradamus, Lady Godiva, and Jackie the Ripper.
When and where will it air?
The second season is comfortably at home on Max, where it will premiere on February 1. The show is intended for mature and chaotic audiences, so bear that in mind when tuning in.
(featured image: HBO Max)
