The animated spy show Totally Spies! is officially coming back to Cartoon Network. Is it season 7? A reboot? In an announcement of the revival, production company Banijay Kids & Family calls it both, but the point is: A new Totally Spies! will premiere on the network in 2024, before finding a home on the newly rebranded streaming service Max.
The show, which comes from French animation company Marathon Media, originally premiered on ABC Family in 2001, before moving to Cartoon Network. It followed three regular Beverly Hills high school girls — brainy Sam (Jennifer Hale of Mass Effect fame), plucky Alex (Katie Leigh), and fashionable Clover (Andrea Barker) — who are also secret agents saving the world. Totally Spies was inspired by the early-2000s era of pop girl groups and Clueless, and fueled by a surge of female spy characters in that era, which turned the show into a generational hit.
Totally Spies! emphasized the friendship between the trio and balanced the day-to-day high school hijinks with the action-packed spy shenanigans. Every mission saw the girls presented with snazzy new gadgets, which while completely impractical and implausible, were absolutely cool. Two decades later, fans still remember the series’ whole aesthetic, the iconic Y2K fashion and decor that just really made it pop.
Later seasons of Totally Spies! were co-produced with Canadian company Image Entertainment Corporation. After the fifth season, the show got a prequel movie in 2009, and then a sixth season in 2013 (which had a a promotional event at the Palace of Versailles, because it deserved it). While the main series eventually had the girls go off to college, it seems like the new season will bring them back to high school, but in a new town with a new set of bad guys to battle.
“With strong female leads and an aesthetic that has inspired a generation, Totally Spies! is an iconic show with a hugely passionate global fanbase, eager to join the agents on their latest adventures,” said Benoît Di Sabatino, CEO of Banjay Kids & Family, the parent company of the show’s distributor, in a press release. “The new series stays true to all the key elements that make the show so popular, but has been lovingly updated for a new audience, reflecting the modern challenges faced by both high schoolers and spies alike!”
A reboot of the show was previously announced in 2022, with a tentative 2023 release date. It was later pushed to 2024 and will now officially debut on Cartoon Network in the United States, before heading to Max in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It is unknown if the original English voice cast will return. Check out previously released redesigns below: