The adult animated series’ second season, ‘House of Chico,’ follows Rocky Romero’s return to his Lucha origins and features popular Latino influencers and talent; show to offer more engagement opportunities with new NFTs and interactive capabilities released throughout the season.
Today, Web3 animation studio Toonstar announced the Season 2 launch of its adult animated series, The Gimmicks, powered on the Avalanche blockchain. The show premieres October 27 at Avalanche Creates, a Bay Area event hosted by Ava Labs, a software company supporting the Avalanche ecosystem.
Season 2, “House of Chico,” welcomes Mark Consuelos (Riverdale), who joins the series as executive producer and voice talent. Veteran writers and executive producers “The Daves,” Dave Ihlenfeld and David Wright (Family Guy, Star Trek: Lower Decks, are back for the new season, which follows Rocky Romero (aka Chico el Luchador), who returns to his Lucha origins in Mexico. In addition, Mike Tenango joins the writing team, with Alberto Portillo joining as a producer.
The new season will also feature top Latino influencers and talent, including Jairo Orozco + Bryan Rojo (Mexican Gueys); Eric Ochoa (Supereeego); Jesus Sepulveda (HBO Comedy Special, Mr. Tough Life); Laura DiLorenzo (Netflix, Selena: The Series); and Fabian Alomar (FX, Mayans MC).
“There’s a well-documented lack of diverse voices, especially Latino, in Hollywood,” said Romero. “I’m thrilled to be part of this team, showcasing emerging Latino talent and embracing new technology that will enable even more voices to be heard.”
The Gimmicks embraced Web3 early on, allowing NFT holders to impact storylines and character arcs. The model successfully engaged audiences and yielded high retention levels throughout the season. In addition, Toonstar’s proprietary technologies enabled NFT holders to interact on-chain, logging more than 70 thousand recurring weekly on-chain actions and more than 1 Million DIC punches (voting and messaging) in just three months. In Season 2, The Gimmicks community can look forward to expanded opportunities to interact on-chain with Upvoting, a Reddit-like forum, and “Hot or Not,” a Rotten Tomatoes-like rating board in the new season.
Avalanche launched in September 2020, featuring near-instant transaction finality. It now supports 500+ dApps and purports to secure billions of dollars in value. As the series adds more NFTs and interactive capabilities, Avalanche’s speed and reliability aim to provide the Web3 support needed to balance The Gimmicks’ storytelling with engaging community participation.
“Audience engagement and retention is suffering across all platforms with traditional Hollywood content, but our model is bucking the trend,” said John Attanasio, CEO and Co-founder of Toonstar. “As soon as we started talking with the team from Avalanche, we knew they really understood Hollywood 3.0 and could provide the best technology and support to help us lead the market.”
“Toonstar is transforming entertainment, deploying Web3 elements in ways central to both storyline and fan experience,” said John Nahas, VP of Business Development at Ava Labs. “They’re blurring old lines in creative new ways and paving the way for Hollywood to move into Web3. We’re excited for Avalanche to power their journey.”
Avalanche will host the Season 2 premiere event at their Ciel Creatives Studios, followed by a Q&A with Toonstar and Avalanche executives. Additional NFTs will be released throughout the season, offering audiences new opportunities for engagement.
Source: Toonstar
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
