There’s never been a better time to be an Adventure Time fan. Not only did Oni relaunch a new ongoing comic series earlier this year, but this week sees the release of the second season of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, the animated series about the gender-swapped alternate universe versions of the franchise’s main characters, Finn and Jake. While the first season was an epic adventure through the multiverse, this season finds Fionna and Cake on a new quest alongside the enigmatic Huntress Wizard.
During New York Comic Con, we had the chance to participate in roundtable interviews alongside other outlets to interview the cast and crew of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake Season 2 including executive producer and showrunner Adam Muto as well as voice actors Madeleine Martin (Fionna), Roz Ryan (Cake), and Ashly Burch (Huntress Wizard).
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Was a Fionna and Cake Season 2 always planned from the beginning?
Adam Muto: Generally, you want to plan for serialized or just one complete story. Now we have to plan for both. Season 1 we were trying to introduce a couple of things but even at the time we were told, “Don’t plan for a Season 2.” So you can’t introduce too many cliffhangers.
Taimur Dar: It’s not uncommon for animated shows to recast actors for various reasons such as scheduling. In fact, it’s happened a number of times on Adventure Time. Ashly Burch is taking over the role of Huntress Wizard from Jenny Slate. She is no stranger to the franchise having been involved as both a voice actor and a writer. What went into casting Burch and any other actors?
Adam Muto: In Ashly’s case, we just did an open audition. We sent out a casting call and got a ton back. Actually, we didn’t realize Ashly was reading for it until we saw her audition in the selects that the casting director pulled. That was just serendipity. Oftentimes, we’ll approach an actor directly if we think they’re a good match. Not always a direct match, but if their vibe seems similar or they have an aspect to them that would fit the story better. Usually, we try to go either kind of near or completely different when we’re recasting. It’s happened partially because a lot of the actors we set up fourteen years ago got huge in the meantime. Even the fact that Donald Glover came back for Season 1 was kind of a surprise because we were pretty sure he was going to be too busy to want to come back. That would have been understandable too because it is a commitment to come in for multiple episodes. Musicians especially have been historically very hard to book. What are you going to do? Either we have to write them out of the story completely or find someone who could work.
Q: What was your thought process going into the audition?
Ashly Burch: I knew that Huntress Wizard was a legacy character important to lots of people including me as an Adventure Time fan, so I wanted to do her justice. I’ve worked on Adventure Time as a writer and did some voices and have known Adam for many years. I also knew they wouldn’t let me do anything that would screw it up. [Laughs]. I was excited to get the role because she’s a cool character and so mysterious. This season we really get to learn more about her which is exciting as a fan of the show.
Q: You’re taking over the role of Huntress Wizard from Jenny Slate. What are you doing to make it your own?
Ashly Burch: What’s interesting about Huntress Wizard in this iteration is we’re learning so much more about her. I tried to come at it from a place of, “How can I do the most justice to this character as written?” I didn’t want to worry too much about how my voiced sounded in comparison. It’s really about honoring her story and finding the core throughline for her which is helping Finn who is in a rough spot when we meet him in Season 2. What’s really front and center in Fionna and Cake is that she is guarded and slow to trust. I was thinking the most about the best [way] to portray and embody this character who has a journey to go on while preserving this intensity of mission to help this person.
Q: How did you want to differentiate Fionna and Cake Season 2 from last season which dealt with the multiverse?
Adam Muto: Part of it is having a third lead to play off of. Season 1 was Simon who obviously who had a lot set up at the end of the original series. So it felt natural to introduce him. Having a third lead [allows] Fionna and Cake to play off each other. We didn’t want them to just be arguing with each other. We definitely avoided that in the original series. That bummed [Pendleton Ward] out if there episodes if Finn and Jake were in direct conflict a lot. He didn’t want to go down that way.
The multiverse thing is pretty familiar to everybody now. Also, I think there was a risk to do more of that. It would be easier in some ways, but harder in others to keep it novel. The gimmick of it would not be as satisfying.
They even pitched a Regular Show and Adventure Time crossover. Pen [Ward] and J.G. [Quintel] were both against it. We wanted Fionna and Finn to interact in a way where one of them could take something from the other. Fionna has some feeling of inadequacy because Finn is this mythic figure in Ooo. He’s undaunted and she is completely daunted in some situations. That was what made me interested in her because she wasn’t completely confident all the time. Even Finn wasn’t confident all the time but his moments of self-doubt were more far in between.
Q: What’s Fionna’s journey in Season 2?
Madeleine Martin: I think she’s still trying on different personas and figuring out who she wants to be. Fionna this season is reframing her outlook on life. One thing I liked about Season 1 is in the first episode you see her feeling like her life is mundane and boring and it is mundane and boring. I always loved that idea whatever you expect to happen is how your life will go. If your want your life to be more magical and exciting you need a traveling mindset.
Q: Were there any challenges getting back into your character?
Roz Ryan: I had no problem because they allowed me to create her. I’ve been in the studio with the same director over and over. We have that unspoken thing. The writers have gotten to know the character that they created very well. It was like riding a bike.
Taimur Dar: I’m delighted to see voice director Kristi Reed was once again involved in the second season of Fionna and Cake. She’s one of the best in the business and was incredibly kind enough to be on a voice directing panel I hosted at WonderCon last year. You have worked with her a number of times over the years on various animated projects. What has been the experience being directed by her and how has your working relationship developed?
Ashly Burch: That’s such a cool question. I feel like voice directors don’t get shouted out very often. That’s awesome. Kristi is great. She’s been in animation for so long. I think the first time I worked with her was Over the Garden Wall. She directed that. It’s just great because there’s a shorthand and trust that comes from working with the same people over and over again. She has a style where she understands the tone of whatever show she’s on and she knows how to get you right in the pocket while still letting you have little moments and find things that are specific to you that will help the character stand out. Huntress Wizard is supposed to whistle a couple of times in the show and I’m an atrocious whistler. I was like, “Just letting you guys know, I do not have a whistle in my vocabulary.” They said, “We’re just going to use your awful whistle that doesn’t really work.” [Laughs]. Stuff like that is fun when you have a relationship with a director. There are little quirks they’ll find or find endearing that will get added into the character and make it a more involved performance.
Q: How did you go about expanding the lore of Adventure Time with this series?
Adam Muto: Not everyone has encyclopedic recall. The purpose of lore is to make sure it feels consistent. I think there’s a risk of over connecting and overexplaining things once you start getting into backstory. Questions are more interesting than answers. But you can’t just bring up questions. There might be some deviations but we try to be consistent with what was established. It’s something to be watchful for.
Q: What are you excited for fans to see from Huntress Wizard?
Ashly Burch: I’m excited because this season you get to see Huntress Wizard’s backstory which I think fans of Adventure Time have been wanting for years.
Taimur Dar: You’ve been voice acting and performing professionally since childhood, so how do you feel you’ve grown?
Madeleine Martin: They always say so much of your life experience goes into the characters you play. As I’ve grown up, the characters I’ve played have grown up. In this season for Fionna there’s definitely a struggle for her in adulting. I definitely remember that. I’m going to say it was in the past but it’s still current. [Laughs]. Reality and grown up life is harsh and I feel like that’ s one of the reasons love Adventure Time. It’s a great escape.
I’ve gone through so much life since I started the show. Each week when I would get a script for the show there would be so many things in Fionna’s character that are mirrored in my own life. I definitely have embedded myself in Fionna’s character. I do feel like as she’s found her authentic self, I’ve found myself playing her.
Taimur Dar: I’m really impressed with the wide range of your performances whether it’s Huntress Wizard or Molly McGee in Disney’s The Ghost of Molly McGee. How do you feel you’ve grown as a voice actor since you first started?
Ashly Burch: I think when I first started I thought the way you become a good voice actor is you can do a different of voices, which certainly helps. But what I learned is it is like other forms of acting where you have to break down the character. I learned to focus more on the story being told with the character and using that character’s personality and growth as the bedrock versus, “I think this character should have a squeaky voice.” It doesn’t start there. It starts with, “Who is this person?” Molly is young and extremely optimistic and really wants to help people. So that informed how I performed her. Huntress Wizard is guarded and focused and intense. That motivated how I played her. The big lesson that I learned as I continued to act was it’s always about the character.
Taimur Dar: You’ve been in quite a number of animated projects over the course of your career. Was voiceover something you actively pursued?
Roz Ryan: When I was a kid growing up in Detroit, I was sixteen and I won a talent show at the Fox Theater. They offered a contract with Motown. I was still in high school so we turned down the contract on the advice of a friend. I wanted to be a recording artist. All I ever wanted was a hit record. It’s the only thing I’ve never had. I’ve done television, Broadway, animation, movies. Never had a hit record. It’s not something I pursued. It’s something I’m blessed with. I never even wanted to go to Broadway.
A friend of mine, Vondie Curtis-Hall, told when in Detroit when I was nineteen, “You need to go to New York.” I was a big fish in a little pond working the club circuit in Detroit and I was working all the clubs. I had no clue about Broadway. I auditioned for Ain’t Misbehavin’ and they sent me to Broadway. Then I auditioned for Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling and Reuben Cannon sent me to California to do Amen. All of these things are God sends. Never had that hit record though!
Q: Did you push to do more singing in Fionna and Cake Season 2?
Roz Ryan: I didn’t push for it. As a mater of fact, when I left in 2019 I made a decision that I didn’t want to sing anymore. It wasn’t a disrespect to the gift that God had given me. I wanted to branch out into some of the other things that I’ve been blessed to do. Voiceover at this stage in my life is very easy. I don’t need to be running up and down those Broadway steps!
Taimur Dar: How would say the relationship between Fionna and Cake differs from that of Finn and Jake?
Madeleine Martin: That’s a good question. Fionna can be slightly more selfish, especially this season. I think she’s struggling a bit more and that might be because she’s older and has more adult experiences. This season she learns what goes into being a good friend to somebody.
Q: Why do you think this franchise has such a dedicated fanbase?
Madeleine Martin: I was, and still am, a fan of Adventure Time before I started working on it. The metafiction of Fionna and Cake is a big drawn. It’s a story within a story. The audience members also bring their own existential stories to bear in watching it. There’s this triple level of storytelling that’s happening.
My sister-in-law teaches at a high school in New York. Every year on Halloween she sends me a photo. That always makes my day. If I don’t get one, I’m like, “Did nobody go as Fionna this year?”
Taimur Dar: After such a well-received first season of Fionna and Cake, was there any anxiety about fan reaction towards this second season?
Adam Muto: There’s always anxiety but that’s so out of your control that all you can do is be anxious about it. If you start making decisions based on [that] then you start betraying whatever integrity you had towards the story before. You obviously want to keep the audience in mind but there’s just been as many opportunities we have had to say no to because it didn’t make sense. People said we should have been cancelled after the first season of Adventure Time. After the first season they said, “It’s not the same.” Also, it’s not a monolith. It’s very hard to say which part of the fanbase you should listen to. One of the advantages of Adventure Time is that people came to it for different reasons. Some liked the surreal aspect or the Marceline stuff or the Fionna and Cake episodes. I think if we got into that pattern of trying to second guess what the fandom would want, we’d also be alienating just as many in the process.
Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake Season 2 premieres Thursday, October 23 on HBO Max.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from NYCC ’25.
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