Smiling Friends Creators Finally Reveal How Long the Hit Animated Series Will Last

Smiling Friends just wrapped its third season on Adult Swim on November 30, 2025. If you love its particular blend of absurdist chaos, real-world political jabs, and blink-and-you-miss-it jokes, you are very much not alone. The network already locked in two more seasons. The real conversation now is not if the show is coming back, but how long the ride lasts.

So, how far does this go?

Creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel just talked to The Hollywood Reporter and laid out their thinking. Adult Swim has renewed Smiling Friends for Seasons 4 and 5, but the duo is not aiming for an endless run. In fact, this latest season even poked at The Simpsons and its never-ending lifespan, which sort of telegraphs where their heads are at.

'Five is getting close to probably where we will want to wrap it up.'

That line is from Hadel. Cusack echoed the vibe: after they make Seasons 4 and 5, they will step back, get in a room together, and decide what comes next. The key point: they do not plan to turn Smiling Friends into one of those shows that keeps going just because it can.

Is the network pushing them to keep going?

The interviewer asked that point-blank. Cusack laughed it off and said even their agents assume the show could run to 'Season 80.' He added that their reps and Adult Swim might be happy to keep the lights on forever, but he and Hadel believe shorter and sharper is better for the series. He pointed to The Beatles as the model: finish at a peak, leave a clean, rewatchable body of work, and let the audience want a bit more.

Hadel took the music analogy further: if they wrap Smiling Friends, making a new show would be a reset button, the same way Paul McCartney jumped into Wings to start fresh. Translation: they like the idea of ending strong and then trying something new, rather than stretching a good thing past its prime.

The bottom line

Season 3 is done, Seasons 4 and 5 are on the way, and the creators are already signaling an endgame that probably lands around Season 5. That is not a hard number, but it is the clearest hint yet. Enjoy the next two seasons, because this crew is aiming for a tight, memorable run over a decades-long drift.