‘Napoleon Dynamite’ star Jon Heder to lead NFT animated series ‘Space Junk’

After last year’s launch of “The Gimmicks” with actress Mila Kunis’ production studio, Web3 animation studio Toonstar is back with “Space Junk,” another animated web series that uses NFTs to enable creative collaboration and participation.

This time, “Napoleon Dynamite” star Jon Heder is attached as a voice actor.

Billed as a workplace comedy set among the stars, “Space Junk” follows the people tasked with cleaning up debris from spacecraft. “Workaholics” co-creator Dominic Russo told Decrypt that the idea came from reading about and becoming “slightly obsessed” with creating a funny cartoon show around what is actually a space danger in the real world.

“So much of sci-fi is sexy and elegant, and everyone has the perfect velor suit with the perfect body in it,” Russo said. “I don’t think space is going to be like this. I think space is going to be workers fixing things, and it’s not going to be as sexy as we think — or want it to be.”

“Space Junk” is an NFT-powered animated series from Toonstar. Photo: Toonstar

“They pitched it to me, and I thought it was a really fun idea — really timely, and kind of a cool idea, not just for the concept of the show,” Heder said Decrypt.

In addition to Heder – who is also known for the films “Blades of Glory” and “Just Like Glory” – the series will feature voice acting by Tony Cavalero of “The Righteous Gemstones” and “School of Rock”.

He also described it as an exciting opportunity to work on a show built around Web3 distribution methods. Heder, who co-founded Web3 agency and studio Verified Labs, has also worked on other projects in the space — including the upcoming NFT-powered animated series “Cyko KO,” as well as his own Order of the Tigons NFT art project that also recently launched an experience in metaverse game The sandbox.

Like the pro wrestling-themed “The Gimmicks,” which debuted early last year in partnership with Kunis’ Sixth Wall studio, “Space Junk” will launch a coin for NFTs that viewers can use to vote on narrative decisions , interact with the creators and other fans, and develop their own storylines for characters that live on an official wiki.

Access to the show itself won’t be token-gate, though: everyone can watch it for free starting May 19. Toonstar plans to release episodes every two weeks, with the season spanning eight episodes of approximately 10-14 minutes each. It’s a slower release rate than the weekly “Gimmicks” season, but with each episode roughly twice as long.

“Space Junk” will put the NFTs on Theta network May 15, with each NFT selling for $20. Delivery details have not been made public.

“The Gimmicks” began life on Solana last year before he moved to Avalanche for the second season, but Toonstar CEO and co-founder John Attanasio said to expect similar functionality for the “Space Junk” NFTs at Theta.

The show will also lean into the latest talking point in the busy tech world, artificial intelligence (AI), featuring an in-universe AI wellness bot named Wellbecca… who will be voted on the show by an AI chatbot. The Wellbecca AI bot will also be used for real-world community engagement, Attanasio said, to allow “Space Junk” NFT holders to help create their own short stories.

Animated series are increasingly casting actors of the same ethnicity to voice their fictional counterparts, according to pushback to grades like Apu from “The Simpsons” or Diane from “BoJack Horseman” voiced by white actors. It’s the same kind of thing, Attanasio argued.

“She’s a robot,” he said, “so why shouldn’t she vote from AI technology?”