Will there be Smiling Friends season 4? Renewed or canceled and everything we know so far

Smiling Friends season 4 is one of the most-anticipated comebacks in the history of animated comedies. Fans can't wait for news about the next chapter after the hugely successful third season, which started on October 5, 2025, and ended on November 30, 2025.

Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel, who run the show, have confirmed that the animated comedy will be back for not only a fourth season, but also a fifth!

Adult Swim officially tweeted the exciting news on June 11, 2025:

"Smiling Friends: S3 Coming This Fall + Seasons 4 & 5 on the way."

While an exact start date for the fourth season remains unannounced, the renewal itself is a massive win for fans of the cult hit.

The Future of the Smiling Friends Animated Series

The team will keep doing their strange and wonderful work now that they've been picked up for a fourth and fifth season. On the other hand, showrunners Cusack and Hadel have said they want the show to have a clear, good ending.

"We want it to be like a nice little box set, and we’ve talked about potential seasons that we’d want to stop at, for sure, and it depends on the day. Sometimes we’ll wake up and be like, ‘You know what? Three seasons could be enough.’ But then the next day, we’re like, ‘No, actually, another number sounds better.’ So we always go back and forth, but we are pretty staunch on it not going on forever." Cusack told The Hollywood Reporter, on June 11, 2025. 

The success of the show depends on its unique style, which mixes 2D animation with stop motion, Flash animation, rotoscoping, and live action in a way that looks natural. This wide range of visuals goes well with the show's strange and funny humor, making each episode of Smiling Friends unique and unpredictable. Fans can be sure that this signature style will stay in place through season 4 of Smiling Friends and beyond.

Smiling Friends season 3 recap

The third season of Smiling Friends just ended, and it kept up the show's tradition of weird, stand-alone adventures mixed with unexpected character growth. In an episode about Glep, there was a key moment. After giving each employee an annual review, Mr. Boss finds that Glep doesn't do anything useful and fires him. This sets the stage for an unexpectedly deep look into the character's past.

Glep goes to a nearby bar soon after his wife leaves their mansion for the holidays. There, a strange set of flashbacks show that Glep is actually a Time Abyss, which means he or she is immortal and has been around for hundreds of years. There is an anachronism stew in the episode where Glep talks to historical figures like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington while sitting on modern lawn chairs in front of a modern-style house during the American Revolution. Glep's unintentional Been There, Shaped History moments are the most shocking revelation. For example, his "Happy Dance" caused the fall of the Roman Empire, and spitting out a black substance during a witch trial started the Black Death.

In a sweet Call-Back, the same Happy Dance that drove the Roman emperor crazy is later done for Mr. Boss, waking him up from a sad moment where he is thinking about committing suicide. This genuine, if unintentional, act of kindness comes at the exact time that Mr. Boss gets the idea to start the whole Smiling Friends business, revealing that Glep is one of the company's founders.

The story starts when Mr. Boss fires Glep right after the latter says he's quitting because his role has been called into question. When Glep gets back to the office, he sees a mess. Allan is running around covered in flames, Charlie is lying in a corner, Pim is hanging from the ceiling, and Mr. Boss has several arrows going through him. This Rule of Symbolism shows that Glep, who in the premiere literally nailed the building down, is holding the company together in a more general way. 

Smiling Friends season 3 episodes are available to stream on Adult Swim.