The Most Controversial Couple In Children’s Television Are Getting Their Own Show

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 25 seconds ago

Adventure Time became a pop culture phenomenon, finding a storytelling sweet spot that appealed to children and adults alike. Kids enjoyed the silly humor and larger-than-life characters; adults, meanwhile, enjoyed the show’s brilliant deconstruction of fantasy themes and its surprisingly in-depth character relationships. Arguably, none of those relationships was more complex than the one between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, the Vampire Queen. Early on, the show teased that they might have once been a gay couple, which freaked out Cartoon Network and the show’s production company. As queer relationships became more mainstream, however, these two characters became a canonical couple and even shared a same-screen kiss in the series finale “Come Along With Me.”

That finale was bittersweet because fans worried they wouldn’t be getting any new Adventure Time stories. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, and HBO Max became the exclusive home of two popular spinoff series: Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake and Adventure Time: Distant Lands. Now, it looks like everyone’s favorite lesbian couple is about to come back in a big way. At the Annecy Animation Film Festival, HBO announced that we’ll be getting Adventure Time: Bubblegum and Marceline, a 10-episode series.

A Little More Than Friends

Right now, the official description for this new spinoff is pretty short on details. The logline for Adventure Time: Bubblegum and Marceline reads as follows: “Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen journey across the farthest reaches of Ooo, encountering familiar faces and new dangers.” That description makes it sound like the spinoff is very episodic in nature; however, it’s designed (like Fionna and Cake before it) to tell a story across multiple seasons. The spinoff should have the classic feel to it: the showrunner is Adam Muto, the Emmy-winning creator who started out as a storyboard artist for Adventure Time before rising up the ranks and becoming showrunner in Season 5.

Right now, it’s fair to say that fans of this franchise are eating quite well. While news of Adventure Time: Bubblegum and Marceline is currently electrifying the fandom, a new show is about to premiere: Adventure Time: Side Quests, which hits Disney+ and Hulu on June 29. On top of that, while Season 3 has not been officially greenlit, Fionna and Cake showrunner Muto has told fans there’s always a chance we’ll get more episodes. All of this and a new Bubbline show? That’s great news for old-school fans who can remember when Bubblegum and Marceline had the most controversial relationship on television! 

Making Things Official

Now, Bubblegum and Marceline are a canonical couple, which took a long time to develop. Originally, they were written as two gals with a mysterious, bitter past. The episode “What Was Missing” implied the two women used to be a couple: Marceline’s song makes her sound like a jilted lover, and the end of the episode reveals the most important thing to Bubblegum is a sweater Marceline once gave her. However, this was back in 2011, and Cartoon Network was very nervous about having openly queer characters. They downplayed any fan suggestions about “Bubbline” (their couple name), and we didn’t get a new episode featuring the pair for two years.

Eventually, Cartoon Network relented: in the wake of queer relationships popping up in other popular cartoons like Legend of Korra and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, they leaned in with episodes like “Varmints,” which followed up on “What Was Calling” while adding more hints about a complex romantic relationship between these two. Still, fans worried the show would be afraid to go beyond giving us some very heavy subtext about this ‘ship. But, not unlike Adora and Catra in the final episode of She-Ra, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum locked lips in the Adventure Time series finale.

Sadly, Adventure Time: Bubblegum and Marceline does not yet have a definitive release date. Therefore, fans of these two will have to content themselves the usual way: by mainlining all their favorite Bubbline episodes, comics, merchandise, and fan content. When the show does drop, it will be interesting to see if it deepens the relationship between these characters while otherwise expanding the crazy world of Ooo. No matter the plot, though, it will be great to see the most fascinating couple in animated history back together again!