The main cast of cult classic comedy Napoleon Dynamite is reuniting for a new project.
In an exclusive broken by Deadline, it has been revealed that Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, and Jon Gries are all on board to star in a pilot of animated show Cyko KO, a story based on the Ringo-Award-winning comic book of the same name by Rob Feldman, with Heder voicing the titular Cyko KO.
The character has been described as a “fourth-wall breakin’, pinball-addicted, cereal eatin’, motorcycle-ridin’ hero,” quite the departure from Heder’s earlier work as the nerdy-but-lovable high school student. The series follows Cyko, his sidekick Peachy Keen (Tina Majorino), and their pet Meemop as the team protects the colonies of SuperEarth from a host of crazy characters and giant monsters. However, you don’t need to have a Netflix subscription to tune in to this show, as it will be launched using blockchain technology.
The technology in question is Rewarded.TV, the Web 3.0 streaming service of the blockchain tech firm Replay. This will be the first animated series that is fully funded and solely produced on the Theta blockchain. It will use Thetadrop NFTs that are exclusively distributed by Replay, which means you’ll need to purchase one of those NFTs to be able to watch the 12-minute pilot. These NFTs will also unlock other film titles and series available to watch on Rewarded.TV, with viewers able to earn RPLAY tokens just by watching content on the platform. The official drop is 12pm PT on Friday, Sept. 30, so make sure you’re ready!
This isn’t the first NFT involvement that the show’s creator, Rob Feldman, has been involved in, as he’s previously worked with Theta on a Cyko Headz NFT collection. These collectables were also based on the digital comics created by Feldman and originally spawned the Theta blockchain.
When asked about this project, Feldman said, “The dream has always been to bring Cyko KO to the world of animation and to do so through bleeding edge technology. Between this incredible cast reunion and our partners at Theta, Replay, and Verified Labs, we are going to create something incredibly special for the fans who have supported Cyko and his friends for the past seven years.”
It seems like everyone is thrilled with how this launch is shaping up. “We’re thrilled to be working with Replay and Rob on this drop,” said Kyle Laffey, Head of Partnerships at Theta Network. “Theta continues to build out our video technology, and these NFTs are a perfect use case of how we can enable media and entertainment to enter Web 3. It’s only a matter of time before we see more media brands take this route and experiment with entire new business models for funding and distribution. Replay’s platform and Rob’s content are a natural pairing as early pioneers in this space.”
It’s a brand-new way of experiencing content, where you only purchase what you want to watch rather than sign up for a bulky monthly subscription full of content you’ll never watch. It’s also a great way to fund indie projects that haven’t been able to get the backing of a major corporation. If all goes well, I’m sure this will be the first of many NFT pilot launches we’ll see in the future.
