Swinging Back into Action: ‘Hit-Monkey’ Creators Will Speck & Josh Gordon Take Us Behind the Scenes of Season 2 (New Clips)

This article was written for the August '24 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 342).

Back in 2021, Hit-Monkey swung onto the adult animation scene from the pages of Marvel Comics and quickly became a bona fide sensation on Hulu.

This clever assassin-centric series was created by Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory; Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile) and is based on the cult crime comics from writer Daniel Way and Croatian artist Dalibor Talajić. It follows the wild homicidal adventures of a Japanese macaque whose family aids an injured hit man on the run named Bryce. When Bryce is killed by his enemies, this super-skilled primate swiftly takes up the addictive mantle of violence, aided by the deceased mercenary’s ghost, to seek out revenge and retribution.

Hit-Monkey is produced by 20th Television Animation with animation duties courtesy of Floyd County Productions (Archer, Dicktown). Although the primary action in the debut season unfolded in the seedy heart of Tokyo’s underworld, Hulu’s recently released sophomore outing takes its martial arts madness to the corrupt corridors of New York City. Here, Hit-Monkey continues his murderous rampage while discovering a way to end his destructive habits and Bryce tries to repair the damage to those souls he disappointed while alive.

The Reluctant Assassin

“One of the things we were excited to explore in Season 2 is that the show has always been a rumination on violence and the price you pay for a violent life,” Gordon tells Animation Magazine. “In many ways, Bryce and Monkey are on parallel journeys this season. Bryce with his grown-up daughter and trying to resurrect the wrongs he’s done in his life. And Monkey as he tries to escape this life of violence and killing that he doesn’t particularly enjoy. That’s always been the heart of the show and of the original comic. Monkey is a reluctant assassin. In many ways, this is a deeper emotional season, while at the same time being a funnier season.”

Free to venture into uncharted territory in its second season, Hit-Monkey’s brash humor, barbed sarcasm, bonanza of bullets and blood-stained stories are as evident as ever. Besides the returning vocal talents of Fred Tatasciore (Hit-Monkey), Jason Sudeikis (Bryce), Ally Maki (Haruka), Olivia Munn (Akiko), newcomers include former SNL star Leslie Jones as Bryce’s former handler, Eunice; Cristin Milioti as Bryce’s abandoned daughter, Iris; and even a brilliant performance by Keith David as the Devil.

“Josh and I were always really touched by [Hit-Monkey] because he threads different elements of comedy, action and a real emotionality, and it’s very rare to find that in any character, let alone a Japanese snow monkey,” says Speck, who along with Gordon was nominated for an Oscar for their 1997 live-action short, Culture. “There was something very unique about the characters. In putting this together, what’s been fun is building off the original graphic novel, but also inventing a world of characters and rules and building out what was already such a solid foundation. Being able to explore that feels really exciting, because it’s taking a character to new places and having the freedom to do that. The second season, with him being in New York, was a great logical next step after the first season. We’re hopeful that we can continue coming up with new worlds and inventing new futures for him and that really sparked us creatively.”

‘In putting this together, what’s been fun is building off the original graphic novel, but also inventing a world of characters and rules and building out what was already such a solid foundation.’

— Co-executive producer Will Speck

Atlanta-based animation studio Floyd County is back on board for Hit-Monkey Season 2, as is animation director Neal Holman, giving the bold series an organic continuity and consistency.

“The first season, because of COVID, took over two years,” Gordon notes. “This one took less than a year-and-a-half. It’s been a mad dash during the animation process, but it was kind of great getting back into these characters and moving them into a new city. 20th [Television] Animation came aboard as the main studio just because of a bandwidth thing, and they have a 30-plus-year history with animation, starting with The Simpsons. They’re real pros and were a pleasure to work with.”

Adding momentum to this fresh batch of 10 episodes is the fact that the team was lucky enough to be able to bring back the entire core vocal cast, including Star Trek’s George Takei.

“Obviously, Jason Sudeikis is the core of the cast. Olivia Munn is amazing,” says Gordon. “Fred Tatasciore is a legend and voices Hit-Monkey himself. Ally Maki has an expanded role this season. And then we were fortunate to get our first choices of all the actors we wanted to play the new characters. So, we have Leslie Jones playing Eunice, who is [Bryce’s] manager, who now takes on Hit-Monkey as her client.

“And Cristin Milioti, who is incredible, plays Bryce’s grown daughter, and they have an emotional arc throughout the season. She’s very funny and weird, playing this New York-y character. Then we also have Jim Gaffigan and Rob Corddry coming in to play roles. The fun is that you get to write these characters, and these people sort of invent them in the booth. We’re used to live action, so directing animation is such a fun journey to go on with these actors.”

Any time katana swords and high-caliber handguns are in play, thoughts naturally lead to the legacy of yakuza revenge films and old Westerns that often inspire Quentin Tarantino fare. As movie buffs heralding from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Gordon and Speck naturally injected their film tastes into Hit-Monkey.

“The comedy blend within action was really exciting to us,” Speck notes. “We obviously love Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, and the idea of action in service of character. In the comedic space, we love the modern masters of early ’80s, such as Sydney Pollack, Mike Nichols and Hal Ashby, and those kinds of voices that were able to take a lot of dark subject matters that would otherwise be pretty intense and lighten their load with comedy.”

Season 2 of Hit-Monkey premieres today, July 15, joining Season 1 now streaming on Hulu.