Regular Show Creator Teases Bold New Direction for The Lost Tapes

Regular Show is back on Cartoon Network this week, and The Lost Tapes is not easing into anything. Mordecai and Rigby are front and center again, most of the original voices are back, and the show cleverly positions itself to play in multiple timelines without nuking what came before.

So what is The Lost Tapes doing?

The new series picks up after the original finale, where Pops sacrificed himself to stop his brother, Anti-Pops, and moved on to the great beyond. Up there, Pops has been rewatching the park crew’s exploits on VHS tapes labeled 'Regular Show.' In the premiere, he breaks the tape he’s on and heads out on a quest to replace it. That setup lets the show dive into stories that land during the classic run and peek ahead at future bits, all while staying anchored to the post-finale status quo. Smart way to revive a show that literally killed characters off.

Quintel says it isn’t a continuity do-over

Creator J.G. Quintel (who also voices Mordecai and Hi-Five Ghost ) told Variety they’re not rewriting history. He acknowledges the obvious question — how do you bring a series back when some characters died at the end? — and says the very first episode answers that. It’s structured as a half-hour special with a different format than anything they’ve done before, and they had to convince the network to let them open that way. Once that table-setter is done, it’s back to the usual chaos.

'It’ll be important to have watched it all, and there will be a payoff. Watching it through to the end will be really satisfying. There’s going to be plenty of Mordecai and Rigby hijinks throughout, the classic stuff. But we wanted to take other characters that were off to the side in most of the series, and explore their backstory more. Beyond Margaret and Eileen, there are going to be other characters that get their own episodes here and there. And there’s going to be some new characters.'

What Quintel is teasing

• This is not a retcon; the premiere directly explains how the show continues after the finale’s deaths.
• The opener runs like a half-hour special with an unconventional structure the team had to pitch to Cartoon Network.
• Expect classic Mordecai and Rigby nonsense, but with more focus on side characters’ backstories — not just Margaret and Eileen — plus brand-new faces.
• The season is built for a payoff if you stick with it all the way through.
• Most of the original cast is back to voice the gang.
• The premise allows stories set during the original run and in the future, while the frame sits after the finale.

Episode count

Cartoon Network has ordered 40 episodes of Regular Show: The Lost Tapes, so there’s plenty of runway for the show to have its fun and land the ending Quintel is promising.