Here’s Your History-Twisted First Look at HBO Max’s New Clone High Series

The much-anticipated “modern refresh” of MTV’s cult animated series Clone High is inching toward its HBO Max release—and the series, created in part by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller, has some hilarious new history-twisting images to prove it. Plus: more casting news!

The announcement came as part of this weekend’s WonderCon, which featured a panel highlighting the new-old series. Here’s the official logline: “This modern refresh of the Phil Lord, Chris Miller [Lord and Miller’s shared credits include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Afterparty, and 21 Jump Street] and Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso, Cougar Town, Scrubs) hit series Clone High is set at a high school for clones of historical figures. After a high school that was secretly being run as an elaborate military experiment to clone the greatest minds in history was put on ice, the clones have been thawed out 20 years later to resume the experiment with new clone classmates—all while navigating a new set of cultural norms and overly dramatic teen relationships.”

Returning stars include Will Forte (Abe) and Nicole Sullivan (Joan), plus Lord as Principal Scudworth, Miller as JFK and Mr. B, Christa Miller as Candide Simpson, Donald Faison as George Washington Carver, and Judah Miller as Scangrade. New to the school, per an HBO Max press release: “Ayo Edebiri as Harriet; Mitra Jouhari as Cleo; Vicci Martinez as Frida; Kelvin Yu as Confucius; Neil Casey as Topher Bus; Jana Schmieding as Sacagawea; Sam Richardson as Wesley; Mo Gaffney as Ms. Grumbles; Al Madrigal as Frederico; Danny Pudi as Dr. Neelankavil; Emily Maya Mills as Ethel Merman; Michael Bolton as Michael Bolton; Mandy Moore as Mandy Moore, Ian Ziering as Ian Ziering; Steve Kerr as Steve Kerr; and Jeffrey Muller, Kyle Lau, Dannah Phirman, and Danielle Schneider.”

“Steve Kerr as Steve Kerr” is especially delightful to me for basketball appreciation reasons, but that is a tip-top cast of funny folks. HBO Max also shared three images from Clone High, including the tongue-tied one at the top of the post. Here’s the provided caption for the below: “Frida Kahlo, Abe Lincoln, JFK, Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman, Cleopatra, and Confucius stand in front of the Grassy Knoll as it burns.” JFK looks so blasé, considering the context!

And finally, here we see “Principal Scudworth sets the tone during ‘Saxual’ Education Week.”

No word yet on exactly when Clone High will be back in session on HBO Max, other than it’ll be 2023—marking the 20-year anniversary of the original series.

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