Primal season 3 is just two months away, and anticipation for the surprising new direction that the award-winning adult cartoon is taking is starting to build momentum.
When Primal season 2 concluded with Spear's death, series creator Genndy Tartakovsky indicated that the show would continue but move to an anthology format where individual episodes channeled the show's familiar themes of visceral animated violence set within dialogue-free storytelling and award-winning sound design.
Primal season 2, episode 5, "The Primal Theory," was to act as a pseudo-pilot for season 3's new direction, as that standalone episode was set in 1890 England and followed an escaped insane asylum inmate who descends upon a gathering of scientific intellectuals to wreak bloody havoc.
Speaking to Collider, Tartakovsky dove into why he decided to switch gears in the middle of season 3's development and switch the series back to being focused on Spear and Fang in lieu of the anthology format.
Said Tartakovsky, "At the end of Season 2, I talked about Primal becoming an anthology. So, it's going to be different characters, different everything, just following the core idea of Primal, which is not a lot of dialogue. It's visual storytelling. It's visceral. It's raw. After developing for a little bit, I realized I missed Spear, and I spent 20 episodes having the public love him and having the audience really like the relationship with him and Fang. And then an idea sparked that I could do more, and Spear became a zombie."
Speaking on Spear becoming a zombie, Tartakovsky added, "I feel like there's a lot of new and there are a lot of established zombie things. I'm not a horror guy, right? I actually don't watch horror films. I don't like to be scared, so it was funny for me to do Primal as a show anyway, because there are a lot of, I call them more thriller-type feels, right? It's more of a thriller, dramatic, emotional show than just the scares. So, this is kind of following that same rule. There are zombie movies that I like, you know, World War Z, I like The Last of Us, all that stuff, but I think we established our own rules, while at the same time, not breaking all the laws that we kind of associate with zombies."
The teaser trailer makes it clear that despite Spear’s shocking return as a zombie, Primal Season 3 isn’t straying from what made the series a standout. Fans can still expect the same raw, unflinching violence, minimalist storytelling, and immersive, award-winning sound design that define Genndy Tartakovsky’s prehistoric epic.
Though Tartakovsky has kept most story details under wraps, he did reveal that Spear and Fang’s offspring will appear in the new season and play a pivotal role in the unfolding narrative.
As we wait for the precise release date of Primal Season 3 to be revealed by Adult Swim, (it's currently confirmed to premiere in January 2026 but doesn't have an exact date just yet), keep an eye on Toonado for news and updates.