‘Daria’ Spinoff ‘Jodie,’ Starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Lands at Comedy Central

Ryan Lattanzio
·3 min read

Click here to read the full article.

At long last, MTV’s ’90s cult hit “Daria” is coming back to the small screen. The previously announced spinoff “Jodie,” with Emmy-winning actor and icon Tracee Ellis Ross voicing the title role of Daria’s Lawndale High classmate Jodie Landon, has landed at Comedy Central. The series comes from creator and head writer Grace Edwards, who’s served as writer/co-producer on HBO’s “Insecure,” with additional credits on multiple seasons on the Emmy-nominated comedy “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Inside Amy Schumer.”

Ellis Ross will executive produce the series as well as voicing the main character, Jodie, the academic star of Lawndale High who often struggled to make her voice heard amid a very white suburban school — but always found in Daria Morgendorffer a wise confidante. “Jodie” will pick up with the title character graduating from college and entering a complicated world as an adult. The last we heard from the “Daria” gang was the MTV movie “Is It College Yet?” as the characters headed off to life after Lawndale.

More from IndieWire

“Daria” is significant for Generation X as a reflection of the banality of high school life, and “Jodie” aims to do the same for the present generation. The series, according to a Comedy Central announcement, will satirize workplace culture, Gen Z struggles, the artifice of social media, and beyond. Themes of empowerment in terms of gender and race, as well as explorations of privilege, will come into play in a series that fans should expect to have the same biting wit as the original, which launched in 1997 as a spinoff of “Beavis and Butthead.” The series was created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis.

The five seasons of the original “Daria,” a show that remains as iconic and relevant as ever while also serving as a time capsule of Gen X malaise and late-’90s counterculture, are currently available to stream on Hulu. The show was ahead of its time in addressing issues of race and gender, and “Jodie” intends to follow in its footsteps.

Tracee Ellis Ross is currently best known for her role as Rainbow Johnson on ABC’s Emmy-winning “Black-ish,” but was also most recently seen in the film “The High Note” opposite Dakota Johnson.

“Jodie” is an MTV Studios production. There’s no word yet on when the series will enter production or air, but IndieWire has reached out to Comedy Central for comment.

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.