At San Diego Comic-Con for the past few years, the Hulu Animayhem activation has been a highlight, and 2026 was no exception. Celebrating the new season of King of the Hill and the upcoming season of Futurama, the activation featured some very tasty snacks and some cool swag.
Once visitors made it through the queue outside the activation’s layout, there was a second queue within the activation itself. This queue was shaded and also featured several TV screens, which showed clips from various adult cartoons that are available to watch on Hulu, including The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad.
Futurama’s Planet Espresso
After making your way through the queue, the event itself was divided into two major areas, which a big screen playing clips in the middle. Closer to the queue was the Futurama activation. This was based on an episode from the previous season, “Planet Espresso.” In that episode, the Planet Express building is converted into a coffee shop.
For the activation, a food truck was decorated to look like the PlanEx ship. Visitors had the choice between once of three ice coffee beverages. These were “Fry’s 100 Cups of Coffee,” a cold brew topped with foam, “Leela’s Lavender Latte,” a flavored iced latte, and “Planet Espresso Over Ice,” two shots of “Bender’s Bendy Blend” over ice. There was also the hot drink option, which was two shots of Bender’s Bendy Blend.
In addition to the drinks, there were also “Dark Matter” bites. These were donuts holes, which came in three varieties: plain chocolate, chocolate covered in chocolate sprinkles, and chocolate with chocolate glaze. Both the drinks and the donut holes were delicious (although if you get the “Dark Matter” joke, the donut holes might have given you momentary pause).
Surrounding the food truck were outdoor tables that matched the PlanEx conference room table, with several of them shaded by umbrellas. There were cutout characters of the whole PlanEx crew around, as well, and a photo op that allowed you to become a head in a jar being fed by Scruffy the Janitor.
King of the Hill’s Robata Chane
Beyond the Futurama component of the activation was the King of the Hill component. The main event here was a food truck decorated to look like Bobby Hill’s restaurant from the King of the Hill revival, Robata Chane. Robata Chane is a Japanese-German fusion restaurant on the show, and the snack offerings at the activation reflected this. Visitors could choose between Holstein Beef Yakitori, Chicken Yakitori with Baltic Sea Salt or a Bavarian Veggie Skewer, all of which were served with Root Vegetable Fried Rice. Three sauces were available to go with the skewers: “Dang Ol’ Chili Oil,” Sweet Soy and Texas Teriyaki.
While the fried rice portion was reasonably generous, the skewers were definitely snack sized. Nevertheless, they were tasty. And alongside the food truck were several coolers filled with sparkling water in cans decorated to match the show’s iconic Alamo Beer.
And as with the Futurama component, there were several King of the Hill characters represented by large cutout standees, including a photo op in which you can join Hank Hill and his friends as they stand in their beloved alleyway.
The Hulu Animayhem Activation
Finally, vistors got their choice of swag: either a black ballcap with the Planet Espresso logo for Futurama or a red and white trucker cap with the Alamo beer logo for King of the Hill. Both hats were nice, and for fans of both shows, the choice wasn’t an easy one!
Overall, the activation wasn’t quite as impressive as, say, the year in which a full-size PlanEx building loomed large over the Bayfront. But the Hulu Animayhem activation was nevertheless a very worthy offering for fans of Futurama and/or King of the Hill. My only complaint? I wish they had had sparkling water in Slurm cans in addition to the Alamo cans! Well, there’s always next year…
All episodes of King of the Hill Season 15 are currently available for streaming on Hulu, and the first two episodes of Futurama Season 14 will be available for streaming on Hulu on August 2nd, 2026, with the remaining episodes releasing on a weekly basis thereafter.
Stay tuned to Comics Beat for more news from SDCC ’26.
