Everyone's favorite squishy health care professional, Baymax, is returning for an animated series named after himself and due to debut on Disney+ in early 2022. The studio announced during the recent Disney Investor Day event that have officially ordered the Big Hero 6 spin-off to go ahead, with Baymax! marking Walt Disney Animation Studios' first-ever animated series.
Baymax! will once again take place in the fantastical city of San Fransokyo and focus primarily on the fan-favorite healthcare bot with the small head and big heart. The series has been created by Don Hall, the Oscar-winning director of Big Hero 6, who has provided a few more details regarding the direction of the series.
Describing Baymax! as "a continuation of the movie" that will allow for further exploration of the futuristic city of San Fransokyo, Hall went on to say that "The series really focuses on Baymax's original protocol, which is to be a nurse robot." Each episode will introduce a new character in the form of a patient who Baymax will ultimately try to help. Hall also explained that Baymax will have a "new feature which will allow him to quickly travel around the streets" of the bustling San Fransokyo "looking for patients." The return of such a charming character is reason enough to celebrate, and the light-hearted story sounds like the perfect way to bring him back for another unashamedly fun adventure.
Big Hero 6 was released back in 2014 by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, the movie is (very) loosely based on the Marvel comic of the same name and tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a young robotics prodigy, who, along with Baymax, his late brother's healthcare provider robot, forms a superhero team to combat a mysterious, masked villain. Featuring the voices of Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell and Maya Rudolph, Big Hero 6 was met with both critical and commercial success, grossing over $657.8 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing animated movie of the year.
Baymax! though is not the first time that the property has been spun-off into a series, with Big Hero 6: The Series having premiered on Disney XD on November 20, 2017. Acting as a direct sequel to the movie, the show is now in its third season which began in September of this year.
The Big Hero 6 spin-off is just one of several new animated Disney projects heading to Disney+, including a Moana series set for release in 2023 which follows the titular spirited voyager as she once again ventures beyond the safety of her Polynesian island home of Motunui. The studio has also announced Zootopia Plus, based on the buddy cop talking-animal comedy, which is set for release in 2022, and Tiana, a series based on the heroine from 2009's The Princess and the Frog, which will also premiere in 2022. There are also several Pixar projects scheduled for the streaming service in the near future, including Dug Days, and a series based on Cars. No doubt that, where Disney is concerned, everyone is satisfied with their care. This comes to us courtesy of Disney Investor Day 2020.