Those Squishmallows pillows are going to become movies and TV shows and everything else

If you’ve never heard of Squishmallows, you’ve probably seen them in stores or on TikTok videos (where they’re apparently especially popular, for whatever reason)… but also, if you’ve never heard of Squishmallows, you probably don’t go on TikTok often. They’re both popular with the young people. If you need a primer, though, Squishmallows are like the new Beanie Babies, except some of them are very big and they’re relatively expensive. They’re mostly cutesy, colorful animals that look like big cuddly lumps, and also there are licensed Squishmallows like Grogu from The Mandalorian and holiday Squishmallows like candy corn or Christmas trees.

We’re talking about Squishmallows today, not because they’re super cool or fun, but because—despite being stuffed toys—they’ve just collectively signed with talent agency CAA for representation in “numerous areas” like “film, television, video games, publishing, live touring, and more.” In other words, if you haven’t heard of Squishmallows yet… you will. This news comes from Variety, which says Squishmallows owner Jazwares has sold “over 86 million units in over 40 countries” since they first came out in 2017, which again raises the point that these things are very popular and you surely must’ve seen them around. Maybe not in your daily life, depending on who you are and whether or not you have children, but they’re definitely out in the world.

Variety points out that this is just the latest expansion for the Squishmallows brand, which recently launched an animated YouTube series called Squishville. That show combines the lovably lumpy Squishmallows characters (to the extent that “a cat” or “a unicorn” or “a fox” counts as a character) with that kind of vaguely off-putting, dirt-cheap CG animation that kids on YouTube are apparently obsessed with. Hopefully whatever Squishmallows projects come next will look more like Squishmallows and less like all of the other weird stuff on YouTube.