Primal

Primal (Also known as Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal) is an American adult animated television series on Adult Swim by Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky. The series consists of twenty half-hour episodes.^[1]^[2] The first half of the series had a five-night premiere starting October 7, 2019^[3]^[4], with the second half premiering on October 4, 2020.^[5]^[6]

On September 3, 2020, the series was renewed for a ten-episode second season^[5]^[7] that premiered on July 21, 2022.^[8]

On June 16, 2023, the series was renewed for a third season,^[9]^[10] and has started production.^[11]

Premise[]

Primal features a caveman at the dawn of evolution. A dinosaur on the brink of extinction. Bonded by tragedy, this unlikely friendship becomes the only hope of survival in a violent, primordial world.^[4]

Cast[]

Aaron LaPlante as Spear^[12], Ape-man #3, Big Gorilla, Screaming Caveman, Viking, Viking C, Constable, Soldier 1, Soldier 2, and Spear's Father
Tom Kenny as Ape-man #1 and Ape-man #2
Jon Olsen as Ape Shaman and Krog
Amanda Troop as Lula and Witches (Baba, Kira, Haga and Deena)
Laetitia Eido-Mollon as Mira
Adam Fergus as Celtic Chief
Myanna Buring as Rikka
Fred Tatasciore as Viking Chieftain, Eldar, Giroud, Mad-Man, Warrior and Villager
Darin DePaul as Viking A, Viking B and Viking D
Jeremy Crutchley as Lord Darlington and Bertie
Jacob Dudman as Charles and Stevens
Giles Matthey as Blakely
Imari Williams as Kamau, Soldier 3 and Soldier 4
Amina Koroma as Ima and Amara
Hillary Hawkins as Amal
Ike Amadi as Warriors 1, 2 and 3
Stefan Johnson as Warriors 4, 5 and 6
Dave Fennoy as Mira's Father and Villager
Noah Bentley as Young Spear
Ali Zayn as Warrior and Villager
Lilah Tartakovsky as Spear and Mira's Daughter

Prehistoric Creatures[]

Main article: List of creatures

Episodes[]

Main article: List of episodes

Trivia[]

This series is the second television series created by Tartakovsky to air on Adult Swim, the first was Samurai Jack. However, Samurai Jack initially aired exclusively on Cartoon Network for four seasons.
The series has almost no dialogue, focusing only on visual storytelling. The only exception is a vocal accompaniment of grunts, screams, and roars.^[2]
- "Slave of the Scorpion" is the first episode where dialogue in a different language is used.
- "The Primal Theory" is the first episode where the English language is used.
The series is animated by French studio Studio La Cachette.^[13]
- The series uses a similar, if not identical, animation style to Sym-Bionic Titan, a sibling show co-created by Genndy Tartakovsky and predecessor to Primal.
One of the goals of Primal was to give it a strong horror theme. To accomplish this, the crew drew influence from multiple sources, including Conan The Barbarian, Osamu Tezuka, Frank Frazetta, Moebius, Ralph Bakshi, and Heavy Metal Magazine.^[13]
- In an homage to Conan creator Robert E. Howard, the characters of Spear and Fang allude to the title of Howard's first short story, Spear and Fang.
Tartakovsky has had the idea for the series for eight years, when he was working on storyboards for fun.^[14]
Four days prior to its announcement, the second season trailer was uploaded on July 2, 2022. Adult Swim deleted it shortly after and re-uploaded the trailer the day of the season's official announcement.^[15]^[8]
In an interview following the second season finale, Genndy Tartakovsky stated that season 2 concluded Spear and Fang's story, and has expressed interest in exploring other stories with different characters if there are future seasons of Primal.^[16]