Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Billy West Set to Reprise His Ren & Stimpy Roles in New Reboot

Billy West has revealed that he's set to reprise his iconic The Ren & Stimpy Show roles of Ren Hoeck and Stimpson J. Cat from for a new Ren & Stimpy reboot.


In a Tweet, the voice actor revealed: "I’m reprising my roles of Ren & Stimpy for an all new reboot!".

The Ren & Stimpy Show premiered on August 11, 1991 as one of the original Nicktoons, alongside Rugrats and Doug. The cult Emmy-nominated animated series followed Ren, foul-tempered Chihuahua, and Stimpy, a good-natured yet dimwitted cat. It aired for nearly 100 episodes over five seasons on Nickelodeon, ending in December 1995. The following year, the series had a run on MTV. 

When the show launched, West voiced Stimpy, however, took over the voice of Ren after the show's creator, John Kricfalusi (who also voiced the character) was fired by Nickelodeon. In 2018, a BuzzFeed article accused the creator of sexually abusing teenage girls.

John K would go on to try and replicate the success of Ren & Stimpy without the restraint of a kid’s network, churning out Ren & Stimpy’s Adult Cartoon Party in 2003, but it turned out the censorship battles made the show what it was. 

In August 2020, Comedy Central announced that it had commissioned a reimagening of Nickelodeon's  The Ren & Stimpy Show, 25 years after the Nicktoons' original run, as part of the network tapping into IP across ViacomCBS to build an original animated slate of adult comedy around stalwart South Park. The Ren & Stimpy Show will join a Beavis and Butt-Head reboot from Mike Judge and Daria spin-off Jodie.

It will not, however, involve Kricfalusi, with the show's creator having no creative input into nor receiving any financial remuneration from the new series.

When the reboot was announced, it caused controversy. Robyn Byrd, who publicly accused Kricfalusi of having a relationship with her during the 1990s, launched a online petition to get the reboot scrapped, which garnered thousands of signatures.

In a sperate tweet, West also revealed that he "thinks" Bob Camp is involved with the reboot, along with The Ren & Stimpy Show animators Jim Gomez and Bill Wray.

Bob Camp was the co-founder of the studio that created Ren & Stimpy and successor to the show after John K's firing.


Originally published: September 14, 2021 at 22:28 BST.

H/T: Special thanks to @TheAGames10 for the news!

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