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*Captain Fall*
Captain Fall
Genre	Absurdism; Dark comedy; Crime drama;
Created by	Jon Iver Helgaker; Jonas Torgersen;
Developed by	Jon Iver Helgaker; Jonas Torgersen; Joel Trussell;
Written by	Jon Iver Helgaker; Jonas Torgersen;
Directed by	Adam Parton
Voices of	Jason Ritter; Christopher Meloni; Lesley-Ann Brandt; Anthony Carrigan; Alejandro Edda; Adam DeVine; Trond Fausa;
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1 (+ 1 unaired)
No. of episodes	10 (+ 10 unaired)
Production
Executive producers	Jon Iver Helgaker; Jonas Torgersen; Joel Trussell;
Animator	Boulder Media
Running time	27 minutes
Production companies	Writers & Models; Netflix Animation
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	July 28, 2023

Captain Fall is an American adult animated absurdist dark comedy crime drama television series created by Jon Iver Helgaker and Jonas Torgersen that premiered on Netflix on July 28, 2023. Produced by Netflix Animation, viewers follow Jonathan Fall, who is the captain of a cruise ship where smuggling and human trafficking are taking place without his knowledge. Helgaker, Torgersen, and Joel Trussell serve as executive producers, with Adam Parton as supervising director.

Jason Ritter stars as the voice of Jonathan, with Christopher Meloni, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Anthony Carrigan, Alejandro Edda, Adam DeVine, and Trond Fausa also starring. Development on the series officially began in July 2020, with Helgaker, Torgersen, and Trussell hired in their respective roles. The cast and release date were announced in June 2023. Animation was provided by Boulder Media.

In November 2023, the series was canceled after 10 episodes, with its remaining 10 episodes left unaired, without a distributor.^[1]

Premise

A goofy, gullible sea captain is hired to helm a high-end cruise ship and becomes the perfect fall guy for an illicit smuggling and human trafficking operation.
— Netflix^[2]

Cast and characters

Jason Ritter as Jonathan Fall: a naïve but kind shipmaster, looked at horribly by his parents.^[3]^[4]^[5]
Christopher Meloni as Agent Steel, an FBI agent.^[6]
Lesley-Ann Brandt as Liza Barrel: The leader of the human traffickers, who aims to use Jonathan as her latest patsy, pitying him for his oblivious nature while framing him for trafficking children.^[6]^[5]
Anthony Carrigan as Mr. Tyrant, the chief financier of the human traffickers.^[6]
Alejandro Edda as Pedro: the human traffickers' muscle,^[6] who takes glee in acts of violence while feeling sorry for Jonathan.
Adam DeVine as Tanner Fall: Jonathan's older brother who receives more attention and admiration from their parents than him. A shipmaster prodigy compared to his brother, Tanner is initially presented as a narcissistic manchild with delusions of being a ladies' man; after being fired and then tortured by Liza, Tanner attempts to turn himself around, and expose Liza to his brother.^[6]^[5]
Trond Fausa as Nico: a new recruit to the human traffickers.^[6]
Christopher McDonald as Blake Fall^[7]
Bebe Neuwirth as Alexix Fall^[8]

Episodes

The series was planned to consist of 20 episodes split into two parts.^[3] Jon Iver Helgaker and Jonas Torgersen served as writers while supervising director Adam Parton directed several episodes.^[6]^[9] The first ten episodes were released in July 2023; following the series' cancellation in November 2023, the remaining ten episodes have yet to be aired.^[1]

Production

Development

In July 2020, Netflix announced development had begun on Captain Fall, an adult animated comedy series created by Helgaker and Torgersen. Consisting of 20 episodes split into two parts, it would center on Jonathan Fall inadvertently in charge of a smuggling ship. Helgaker and Torgersen would serve as executive producers and showrunners, while Joel Trussell—an animation veteran and producer at Netflix—would also executive produce. Creators of Norsemen, Helgaker and Torgersen initially pitched Captain Fall as a live-action piece before the service saw its potential as animated, thus making it the duo's first work in the genre. While they found the transition daunting, the two eventually deemed animation "amazingly limitless and creative on a whole new level", expressing gratitude for Netflix and the team surrounding them. Though the switch was a prior decision, Variety was confident it would benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting many shutdowns for live-action productions and the rise of adult animation at the time of the announcement.^[3] ComicBook.com, and eventually Looper, agreed, believing the story was better suited for it.^[10]^[11] In a 2020 interview with Variety, Helgaker described the series as The Love Boat, The Truman Show, and Ozark carrying "a cartoon baby".^[12]

Helgaker and Torgersen would operate as writers and, along with Trussell, receive credit for developing the series.^[6] By the end of the month, Adam Parton was revealed to be the supervising director,^[9] helming several episodes after working on Bojack Horseman and Tuca & Bertie. He described Captain Fall as having "an off-camber voice", praising Helgaker and Torgersen's style of work and believing their background helped made the show "stand out and keep you guessing as to where it is going to go".^[13]

The series' first "part", comprising ten episodes, was released on Netflix on July 28, 2023,^[3]^[6] before the series was cancelled in November 2023, the remaining ten episodes left unaired.^[1]

According to the Creator Jon Iver Helgaker, the remaining ten episodes of the show were written, storyboarded and have their voice acting recorded. With only the animation left unfinished, he hopes that they could one day find another outlet for the remaining episodes.

Casting

In March 2023, Jason Ritter was announced to voice the lead character, Jonathan Fall.^[4] In June 2023, he was joined by Christopher Meloni as Agent Steel; Lesley-Ann Brandt as Liza; Anthony Carrigan as Mr. Tyrant; Alejandro Edda as Pedro; Adam DeVine as Tanner; and Trond Fausa as Nico.^[6] Christopher McDonald would voice Blake Fall,^[7] and Bebe Neuwirth cast as Alexix Fall.^[8]

Animation

The series' animation was provided by Boulder Media in Ireland,^[8] with Helgaker citing The Adventures of Tintin and The Iron Giant as inspirations.^[12] Parton described the production's content as "massive" due to the frequency of new characters and locations and toiling between having it "visually pop" and working under a confined budget and schedule. At the same time, the staff had "very ambitious ideas" that would be translated for the "cinematic quality" of the series, going beyond what is expected from most adult comedies.^[13]

Marketing

On June 21, 2023, Netflix unveiled the first trailer for the series, along with several images, the announcement of the cast, and the release date.^[6] Despite voicing interest, many expressed doubts about a potential second season, contributing these concerns to multiple cancellations from the platform.^[14] By July 26, The Messenger exclusively shared a clip showcasing the show's dark humor and Jonathan's background.^[5]