Daria‘s Jodie Landon is taking center stage. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Tracee Ellis Ross will voice the titular character in Jodie, a Comedy Central spinoff of the coming-of-age MTV series that will follow Jodie as she graduates college and enters the workforce. It’s reportedly the first of many projects MTV Studios hopes to make as part of an expanded Daria universe with characters from the OG series. Ahead, everything we know about the forthcoming series.
Jodie will follow the post-college life of its main character.
Ross was cast as the voice of Jodie Landon, the valedictorian of the fictional Lawndale High, in June 2019. Viewers originally got to know the character on Daria, an animated spinoff of Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead, that ran on MTV from 1997-2002. Per THR, the show will begin with Jodie graduating from college and entering post-grad life. It was originally conceived as Daria and Jodie, and involved the two friends discussing pop culture, class, gender, and race. But when Ross signed on, the show shifted to center around Jodie alone.
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An official synopsis of the series, per Deadline, reads:
What Daria did for showing how inane high school was for Gen X, Jodie will do for exploring the trials and tribulations of a first job for a new generation. The series will satirize workplace culture, Gen Z struggles, the artifice of social media and more. With themes of empowerment along gender and racial lines, explorations of privilege, and a wicked sense of humor, Jodie will shine a light on the personal and professional issues young Black women face today.
Tracee Ellis Ross expressed her excitement about voicing such an iconic character.
Originally voiced by Jessica Cydnee Jackson, the character of Jodie was one of several female roles on Daria that shaped a generation of feminist women. One of the few characters of color on the show, Jodie often spoke about the pressure she felt to be a so-called model minority and how society cast her as a token Black presence in a mostly-white town.
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Ross spoke to Jodie’s cultural impact—and animated television’s history of sidelining Black characters—in a statement, per THR.
Being able to give voice to fresh, feminist and unexplored stories of young women excites me. Jodie will spin off from the cult classic Daria, and with the brilliant, sweet and sarcastic Black-girl magic that is Jodie Landon, we will feature a diverse cast, comprised mainly of unapologetically smart and ambitious young female characters who are vulnerable and flawed and interesting and funny. As a very cool bonus, Jodie will be the first adult animated show in almost 20 years that will star a Black woman. It will be a smart, funny workplace comedy full of commentary about everything from gentrification to sex to tech to call-out culture.
There is no release date for the series.
No release date or episode count for Jodie has been confirmed. Grace Nkenge Edwards (Insecure) is creator, head writer, and producer of the project, and Ross will also produce alongside MTV’s Trevor Rose, Morgana Rosenberg and Amy Doyle, per THR.
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