Hulu is about to get more Awesome.
The streaming service has ordered a second, 10 episode season of The Awesomes, an animated superhero comedy from Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker. Since it bowed in early August, it is regularly one of the top 10 most-watched shows and one of the top five animated comedies on Hulu.
"The Awesomes has been a runaway hit with viewers, and we're thrilled to continue to work with Seth, Mike and their creative team on another season," said Andy Forssell, Hulu's acting CEO, in a statement announcing the news Thursday. He added: "We’re also looking forward to our continued partnerships with Broadway Video and Bento Box to bring fans of the show more great adventures with The Awesomes."
The long gestating web series tells the origin story of a superhero clan, The Awesomes, that is forced to reform from the ground up after the departure of their leader inspires all the other members to go their separate ways. Prock, voiced by Meyers, the former leader's son and the group's only holdover, assembles a team of leftover superheroes to round out the team. The show's second season is expected to incorporate new supervillains and superheroes, with the team taking on new challenges, which could include an unexpected love triangle, under the leadership of Professor Doctor Awesome (Prock).
Many of Meyers and Shoemaker's friends will be back to voice the many characters featured in the Web series. Season one included Muscleman (voiced by Ike Barinholtz), Hotwire (Rashida Jones), Frantic (Taran Killam), their secretary Concierge (Emily Spivey), the evil Dr. Malocchio (Bill Hader) and Impresario (Kenan Thompson).
The first of a two-part season one finale airs this week. The Awesomes' second will be executive produced by Meyers, Shoemaker and Broadway Video's Andrew Singer. It's a Hulu co-production with Broadway Video (Saturday Night Live), and Bento Box Entertainment (Bob's Burgers) will return as the animation studio. Judd Winick will continue to be a writer and consulting producer on the show.
The news comes half a year before Meyers, an avowed comic book fan, is set to launch his new NBC late night show, which Shoemaker will executive produce. Meyers, the longtime head writer for SNL, will remain at the series' weekend update desk for at least several more months.
For Hulu, a second season of The Awesomes will join a growing slate that will include a mix of acquired series and originals. In the second half of 2013, there are six of the former and four (including Awesomes) of the latter. They join a library of some 70,000 TV episodes from 2,500 series. Hulu called off its highly publicized sales process earlier this spring, announcing instead that it would invest another $750 million in the streaming service.
