The World Tour shredding characters from top-charting mobile game Subway Surfers are embarking on new, animated adventures as the brand’s short-form series debut Junes 1 on YouTube. The show follows four best friends who are navigating the joys and dilemmas of teenage life. Together, they explore their magical city on their skateboards, and discover an amazing mystery that will introduce new technology and change their live forever.
Subway Surfers: The Animated Series (10 x 4’), from SYBO Games, is scripted by Brent Friedman (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Francesca Marie Smith (Hey Arnold!), and produced by Daytime Emmy Award-winning producer Sander Schwartz (The Batman, Justice League, What’s New, Scooby Doo; Teen Titans) and will launch on SYBO’s YouTube channel.
“It’s so incredibly rewarding and amazing to see Subway Surfers come full circle,” said co-creator Bodie Jahn-Mulliner. The franchise began with an award-winning 2009 animated short by Jahn-Mulliner and Sylvester Rishøj, about a rebellious metro graffiti artist evading a grumpy inspector and his dog.
The duo then founded SYBO Games, which brought Subway Surfers to mobile players (with publisher Kiloo). The game was an instant success, surpassing 3 million downloads in its first week. By 2017, it ranked as the most-downloaded game around the world, and it became the first game to pass 1 billion downloads in the Google Play store earlier this year.
“The series echoes what fans have come to expect from these characters and the Subway Surfers universe, an edgy, cool street-style vibe with the unexpected,” said Rishøj.
In Subway Surfers, players take on the role of graffiti-tagging protagonist Jake or one of his many skater friends, wheeling away from the inspector and his canine co-enforcer through the subway systems of famous cities, collecting coins and dodging trains. The game lands its heroes in a new city or country every month — 43 destinations so far.
A longform series is currently in development, aiming for a late 2019 launch.
