Bikini Bottom has a new star!
On Monday, May 31, Nickelodeon officially announced The Patrick Star Show, a SpongeBob Squarepants spin-off series centered on the fan-favorite starfish sidekick.
The 13-episode sitcom-style series is a prequel to SpongeBob, featuring a "younger Patrick living at home with his family where he hosts his own variety show for the neighborhood in his TV-turned-bedroom," according to Variety.
Bill Fagerbakke will continue to voice the role of Patrick, and fans can expect to see SpongeBob Squarepants (Tom Kenny), Squidward Tentacles (Rodger Bumpass), Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence) and Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) all make appearances on the series.
Tom Wilson joins the cast as Cecil Star, Patrick's happy-go-lucky father, as well as Cree Summer as Bunny Star, Patrick's quirky mother. Jill Talley voices Patrick's younger sister Squidina and Dana Snyder plays both GrandPat Star, Patrick grandpa, and Grandma Tentacles, Squidward's grandma. This is the second SpongeBob spin-off, with Paramount+'s Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years debuting earlier this year on the streaming platform.
The announcement comes almost one year after Nickelodeon confirmed SpongeBob is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg famously stated that he did not foresee any spin-off series.
"The show is about SpongeBob, he's the core element, and it's about how he relates to the other characters. Patrick by himself might be a bit too much. So I don't see any spin-offs," Hillenburg told Television Business International in 2009, almost a decade before his death in 2018.
Fans took to Twitter following The Patrick Star Show announcement.
"As much as I feels bad for Spongebob's creator to have his 'no-spinoff' rule broken, The Patrick Star Show sounds like a very surreal take on the Spongebob franchise and fits Patrick's personality perfectly," one fan tweeted.
Another Twitter user commented, "Say whatever you want to say about whatever movie or TV coming out the get but The Patrick Star Show will be the best."
Check out the trailer above for a first look at The Patrick Star Show!
The Patrick Star Show is executive produced by Marc Ceccarelli, Vincent Waller and Jennie Monica. The animated series is developed for television by Claudia Spinelli, SVP of animation development at Nickelodeon, with production overseen by Kelley Gardner, VP of current series animation at Nickelodeon.
The Patrick Star Show premieres in July on Nickelodeon.