Yes, Gorillaz were created by two men, Blur frontman Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, but most fans see them in the form of four animated band members, 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russell Hobbs.
All of those “people” have released the brand new album Humanz, their first new music since 2010’s Plastic Beach and 2011’s The Fall and anticipation is high. Releases of numerous animated videos for tracks from the album have pushed the album high on the pre-release charts, guaranteeing a big start next week.
That’s not the only project that Albarn and Hewlett have been working on. Sometime in 2018, there is going to be a ten episode television series starring the four fictitious members of the Gorillaz.
The original plan was for a Gorillaz movie but Dreamworks felt the concept was just too dark, so they turned to the small screen. Hewlett recently talked to Exclaim and said that, even though they have done some work in 3-D, the series will strictly be two-dimensional and hand drawn. “Everybody does CG now, and it is great when you’re making backgrounds, like environments and landscapes, but not the actual characters. I’m still very much inspired by the work of Chuck Jones, and I love that animation. It’s art. I’d like to keep the characters in that style for the rest of this campaign. So the characters on the show will be 2D, but everything else is up for grabs.”
There’s no word yet on networks interested in picking up the series.
