In another universe, janitors will be asked to save the world. Or at least that’s the premise of Future Man, a new Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg original series coming to Hulu. The show features a janitor who moonlights as a world-ranked video gamer who has the weight of the human race placed on his shoulders, as “mysterious visitors from the future proclaim him the key to defeating an imminent super-race invasion.” And you thought you had a difficult life.
If you were wondering how Rogen and Goldberg came up with this idea, The AV Club has a clue: the duo (unsurprisingly) smokes a lot of weed. So much weed that when Sony’s Amy Pascal was relocated to their former office, she asked management to repaint and ‘industrial clean’ it to get rid of its smell. This was the same office Rogen and Goldberg occupied when they wrote The Interview (with Dan Sterling), the controversial political satire that opened in just 331 theaters — rather than 3500 — due to cyber security threats.
While Future Man may have an unusual plot, the pilot is apparently compelling enough that other outlets, including Showtime, were interested in picking it up according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new comedy is the latest pickup for Hulu in its expansionary year: also on tap for the streamer are Stephen King’s 11/22/63, JJ Abrams and Jason Katim’s The Way, Amy Poehler’s Difficult People, and the fourth season of The Mindy Project.
Kyle Hunter and Ariel Schaffir (who will also work with Rogen on his 3D animated feature Sausage Party) wrote and executive produced the project with Rogen, Goldberg, James Weaver, Kyle Hunter, and Matt Tolmach.
Future Man‘s season premiere date has not yet been announced.
