Aubrey Plaza and Dan Murphy have written three books together and their next project is Kevin, an animated series about a cat who becomes troubled when his human parents break up.
The cast of the Prime Video series was announced on October 7 and includes Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Whoopi Goldberg, John Waters and more.
Plaza is a co-creator and executive producer and voices Dana, a young woman who decides to end her relationship with her boyfriend, but is then blindsided when her cat Kevin decides to move out on his own. She told TODAY.com that the series feels like a “classic.”
“It feels like a classic show. It almost has a 'Golden Girls' vibe where you see this group of cats living together and then they all have their own romantic shenanigans and stuff, but you always end up coming back to where they all live,” Plaza said. “It has some cozy things, but I think it's very New York. It also has this indie-style vibe. I think it'll be unexpected.”
She continued: “I think most animation these days is so fast and frenetic, but ours has a different tone and I'm really excited about it.”
Kevin, a tuxedo cat voiced by Jason Schwartzman, moves into Furrever Friends, a local pet rescue in Astoria, Queens.High quality video
According to a press release from Prime Video, Kevin (voiced by Schwartzman) decided to live on his own after his owner broke up and moved into Furrever Friends, a local pet rescue in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City.
While the tuxedo cat is happy to be living the “single” life in New York, Kevin learns that he's holed up in a fourth-floor apartment with Dana and her boyfriend.
“Jason also wrote the theme song for the show, which is incredible,” Plaza said. “So we also got him to sing, which was great.”
Goldberg plays Cupcake, an elusive hairless cat, and Waters plays Armando, a Persian cat sworn to stay away from humans.
“The characters are so funny. Whoopi Goldberg, for example, playing Cupcake, the hairless wildcat, is iconic,” Plaza said. “It feels very iconic. John Waters is a legend and he plays Armando, the Persian cat, this grumpy, sophisticated guy.”
“The characters are so interesting… and feel so iconic,” Plaza said. High quality video
Plaza described the team behind the show as a “super team of killer writers,” and Murphy said many of the writers lived in New York City in the early 2000s.
“We were really lucky because it’s set in New York, where we were both living at the same time after college in the early 2000s,” Murphy said. “I think living in Queens during that time felt very real.”
He added: “We got a dream cast that we've always looked up to. We were so surprised that we got these iconic characters that we've loved since high school.”
Murphy, who serves as an executive producer on the show, said he and Plaza have been working on “Kevin” for years.
“The way it came together was, we were doing other things and then this thing came to us,” Murphy said. “We started working on it during the pandemic and then it took a while to actually make it.
“But it was a really great experience,” he added. “It's been really fun. It's been really fun. We announced this dream cast, and they're all the people who made the pilot.”
“Kevin” has yet to set an official release date.