Even though it’s considered a staple of ’90s television, MTV‘s stop-motion animated series Celebrity Deathmatch actually aired from 1998 to 2007. So for almost 10 solid years, the popular program pitted the famous musicians, actors and pop culture figures of the time against one another in incredibly violent rounds of combat, and then it disappeared. MTV2 very nearly rebooted it in 2015, but the attempt failed. Thankfully, the show’s latest reimagining with new host Ice Cube is definitely happening.
In a press release, Chris McCarthy (the president of MTV, VH1 and CMT) said everyone was “excited to grow our partnership with Ice Cube and Cube Vision to reimagine this fan favorite. Deathmatch was the meme before memes, remains a hot topic on social media and will be a smart, funny way to tackle the over-the-top rhetoric of today’s pop culture where it belongs — in the wrestling ring.”
For his part, Ice Cube said he was “happy to once again be working with Viacom and MTV on a fan favorite like Celebrity Deathmatch and to continue our success together.” Aside from hosting the show’s forthcoming revival, the rapper will also be executive producing it alongside partner Jeff Kwatinetz and Eric Fogel, who created Celebrity Deathmatch, will also serve as executive producer and co-showrunner.
The new program, which is slated to premiere sometime in 2019, will be a weekly series at a yet-to-be-announced streaming video on demand (SVOD) or premium television outlet. As for potential first matchups, it’s way too early to speculate, so who knows? Maybe the titular stars of Aquaman and Annabelle will be among the earliest contenders.
