While 90s nostalgia has been raging for a while, 00s nostalgia is still forming like a stalagmite in the base of our brains. And just in time to help, The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart announced its actual existence with the first clip, which you can watch above.
The film is the wrap-up of the story which ended The Venture Bros. 7th season in 2018. But fans feared the story would never properly conclude when the show was rather abruptly cancelled in 2020. Rumors had swirled here and there about a wrap-up film, and it was officially announced back in 2021, but now it’s An Actual Thing, with a release later this year from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment.
But wait, let’s back up a bit. The Venture Bros. debuted on Adult Swim in that prehistoric time known as 2004, and over its sporadically-released seven seasons became the IT show on Adult Swim (kinda like Rick and Morty is now.)
Originally just a riff on all-male action tales, specifically Johnny Quest, a 60s Hanna Barbera cartoon, Venture Bros. became much more. Under the guidance of polymath creators Jackson Publick (aka Chris McCulloch) and Doc Hammer, the show was at once overtly hilarious and philosophically abstruse. A potent melange of pop culture references, post grunge industrial music and an examination of toxic masculinity and bad fatherhood, as exemplified by Dr. Jonas Venture, voiced by the peerless James Urbaniak. The brothers of the titles, Hank and Dean, were indeed hapless and clueless, often cruelly abused by the people closest to them, and at one point revealed to be clones – who died rather shockingly.
However, production of the show lagged – Publick and Hammer pretty much did everything themselves – and while it attained cult status, it just didn’t come out often enough. Season 7 ended with Hank missing (but secretly turning into “The Bat”) and the other Ventures alarmed over his departure. Season 8 was already being written when it was cancelled. But The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart will hopefully give everyone the closure they so badly need.
And here’s the logline:
The Venture Bros. are back in an all-new movie picking up after the events from the shocking season 7 finale! In The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart a nationwide manhunt for Hank Venture leads to untold dangers and unexpected revelations, while The Monarch is literally out for Dr Venture’s blood. An imposing evil from the past reemerges to wreak havoc on the Ventures, The Guild, and even the Monarch marriage—it will take friends and foes alike to restore the Ventures’ world to order… or end it once and for all.
The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart stars James Urbaniak (The Fabelmans) as Dr. Venture, Patrick Warburton (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Brock Samson, Michael Sinterniklaas (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as Dean Venture, Chris McCulloch (Superjail!) as Hank Venture and Doc Hammer (The Venture Bros.) as Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. The film also stars Nina Arianda (Being the Ricardos) as Mantilla, Clancy Brown (John Wick 4) as Daisy and Red Death, John Hodgeman (Up Here) as Snoopy, Hal Lublin (Welcome to Night Vale) as Clayton, Jane Lynch (Glee) as Bobbi St. Simone, Charles Parnell (Top Gun: Maverick) as Jefferson Twilight, Jay Pharoah (Spinning Gold) as Nuno Blood, Steven Rattazzi (New Amsterdam) as Dr. Orpheus, JK Simmons (Whiplash) as Ben and Dana Snyder (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) as The Alchemist.
Series creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick wrote and executive produced and Publick also directed.
