Popeye is, of course, the iconic American cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar who debuted back in 1929 and is best known for his tumorous muscles and love of spinach. Though debuting originally in the King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre, Popeye has been adapted in animation, both on television and theatrically, on multiple occasions.
Well, Genndy Tartakovksy — best known for being the mind behind Samurai Jack, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2003), Dexter's Laboratory, the Hotel Transylvania movies, and most recently Adult Swim's Primal — began working with Sony Pictures Animation on a Popeye animated movie back in 2012.
In 2014, an animation test for the project was released on YouTube and positively went viral — amassing almost twenty-million views. However, the project seemed to fizzle out over time despite the reception of the sneak peek. The next year, Tartakovsky announced his departure from Sony's Popeye movie — citing creative differences.
"I was in love with what we were doing, but I think the studio is going through changes and I don’t know if they want to make the Popeye that I want to make," Tartakovsky said at the time.
According to Animation Magazine, Tartakovsky is once again involved with a Popeye animated movie. The reputable creative has apparently teamed up with King Features Syndicate (the aforementioned publishers of the comic strip in which Popeye debuted). Whether the project will retain the animation style (as the sneak peek) is currently unclear but doubtful since it's an entirely different studio.
King Features Syndicate is also working on an animated series based on the popular Cuphead video game which similarly makes use of a 1930s-esque aesthetic — find out more on that here. Tartakovsky is listed as returning for a fourth Hotel Transylvania animated movie (via IMDb) for Sony though as a writer and not director (unlike the three prior instalments) — more on that here.