Michael A. Cherry and Sony Pictures Animation’s new animated family sitcom Young Love is coming to HBO Max in 2023.
Former NFL player turned film and TV director, Matthew A. Cherry, has made a splash since leaving football and pivoting into Hollywood. While he’s had success racking up directing episodes on shows like The Red Line, Whiskey Cavalier, Black-ish, Mixed-ish, The Unicorn, Saved by the Bell and The Last O.G., and writing and directing the web series Almost 30 and Almost Home, his biggest success to date has been the Oscar-winning short film Hair Love. The film tells the story of the Young family, including daughter Zuri and father Stephen, who go on a journey of learning to do her hair with the help of tutorials left by her mom Angela who is battling cancer.
The success of the film led to Cherry inking a new multi-year first-look deal with Warner Bros. Television back in June 2020 that will see him create, develop, and produce new content for Warner Bros. platforms, including cable and streaming.
Then a month later, Cherry and Sony Pictures Animation announced a spin-off series Young Love, an animated family sitcom providing a deeper look into the family dynamics of the Young family as they juggle life, including careers, marriage, parenthood, and social issues. In the early images, the Young family is all smiles with a seemingly now cancer-free Angela donning a full head of natural hair.
Set to appear on HBO Max as a 12-episode Original Series, the show will be produced through Cherry’s company, Cherry Lane Productions, alongside Sony Pictures Animation, with Canadian animation company Atomic Cartoons holding down animation.
“I am beyond excited to continue telling the story of Stephen, Angela and Zuri and further explore the family dynamics of a young Black millennial family we established in our short film Hair Love as an animated series,” said Cherry. “Couldn’t ask for better partners in Sony Pictures Animation and HBO Max in helping us get ‘Young Love’ out to the world.”
Young Love is set to premiere in 2023 on HBO Max.
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