It’s been a long time since we heard that MTV was planning to bring back Daria for a new generation of disaffected teens, but apparently the plan has evolved in the past year. Initially, we heard that the revival would be called Daria & Jodie and that it would be about, well, Daria and Jodie. The idea was that it would be a “reinvented” version of the original show, whatever that was supposed to be mean, but the current plan is simultaneously bigger and more straightforward. According to Variety, that reinvention is now a proper spin-off/sequel focusing primarily on Jodie—Daria’s friend from the original show—as she “enters the workplace in her first post-college job in tech.” However, in a new twist, it will only be the first of “a series of spin-offs” based on Daria, with the others presumably catching up with other supporting characters from the original show.
As for Jodie, we also now know that it will star Tracee Ellis Ross as the eponymous Jodie Landon, saying in a statement that she’s excited to “give voice to fresh, feminist, and unexplored stories of young women” through the show. She’s also going to be an executive producer, and she says they’re putting together a cast that mostly consists of “unapologetically smart and ambitious young female characters who are vulnerable and flawed and interesting and funny.” She also points out that Jodie will be “the first adult animated show in almost 20 years that will star a black woman.” (Semi-related fun fact: Cleveland Brown of The Cleveland Show was voiced by white guy Mike Henry.)
Back when the Daria & Jodie spin-off was first announced, it was unclear if original series creators Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn would be involved, and the Variety story does not mention them at all.