Quick TakeArticle at a glance
- Adventure Time: Side Quests Season 2 premieres October 2, 2026 on Disney+ and Hulu, dropping all 20 episodes at once, and its new trailer brings back Banana Man, a character the original series barely used, alongside young Finn and Jake.
- The Season 2 trailer follows young Finn the Human and Jake the Dog through the Land of Ooo as they take on odd jobs, run into cloud people, and tangle with classic villains.
- Showrunner Nate Cash described the tone of making the season in blunt, personal terms: “Making Side Quests felt like making the original Adventure Time, which felt like hanging out with art school buddies making professional cartoons.
Adventure Time: Side Quests Season 2 premieres October 2, 2026 on Disney+ and Hulu, dropping all 20 episodes at once, and its new trailer brings back Banana Man, a character the original series barely used, alongside young Finn and Jake.
What’s in the New Trailer
The Season 2 trailer follows young Finn the Human and Jake the Dog through the Land of Ooo as they take on odd jobs, run into cloud people, and tangle with classic villains. The clip’s biggest surprise for longtime fans is Banana Man, a character who barely got more than a cameo or two in the original 2010-2018 run and now gets real screen time here.
Showrunner Nate Cash described the tone of making the season in blunt, personal terms: “Making Side Quests felt like making the original Adventure Time, which felt like hanging out with art school buddies making professional cartoons. That sounds like a big sandwich of feelings, and it was!”
When and Where to Watch Season 2
| Region | Platform | Release date | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Disney+ and Hulu | October 2, 2026 | All 20 episodes at once |
| International | Cartoon Network and HBO Max | October 5, 2026 | Following the US drop |
Season 1 premiered June 29, 2026 to a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it’s airing internationally now, only days ahead of Season 2’s US arrival — a scheduling quirk that means two different Side Quests seasons are effectively new to two different audiences in the same week.
Why Recasting Young Finn Isn’t a Red Flag
Sasha Knight voices young Finn in Side Quests, replacing Jeremy Shada, who played Finn for the entire original series. That might read like a warning sign, but it isn’t new for this franchise. Adventure Time already handed Finn’s voice to other actors at the far edges of his life: Jonathan Frakes voiced an older Finn in a handful of specials, and David Bradley voiced an elderly Finn in the Distant Lands special “Together Again.” Side Quests recasting Finn’s childhood is just the same trick pointed the other direction, and it’s the reason the show can lean fully into a lighter, standalone-episode structure instead of trying to make Shada’s adult voice sound like a kid again.
A Prequel Built for Odd Jobs, Not Serialized Stakes
Side Quests is set during Finn and Jake’s early years together, before the serialized, mythology-heavy arcs that defined Adventure Time’s back half. The showrunner has been explicit that the pitch is standalone stories over continuity, which is exactly the register a deep-cut character like Banana Man fits: he’s not there to pay off a season-long plot, he’s there because the writers wanted to use him and finally had the format to do it in.
That’s a similar bet to the one Disney made with the X-Men ’97 revival, and the one it’s making again with the upcoming Darkwing Duck reboot: bring back a beloved animated property’s original voice cast where possible, and trust nostalgia to do work a brand-new show can’t. If you want more low-stakes animated comfort viewing in the meantime, Disney+’s newest picks for younger viewers are also worth a look.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Adventure Time: Side Quests Season 2 come out?
Season 2 premieres October 2, 2026 on Disney+ and Hulu in the United States, with all 20 episodes released at once. It arrives internationally on Cartoon Network and HBO Max on October 5, 2026.
Who is Banana Man in Adventure Time?
Banana Man is a minor recurring character from the original Adventure Time series who rarely got more than a brief appearance. The Side Quests Season 2 trailer gives him real screen time alongside Finn and Jake.
Who voices young Finn in Adventure Time: Side Quests?
Sasha Knight voices the younger version of Finn the Human in Side Quests, taking over from Jeremy Shada, who voiced Finn for the entirety of the original series.
Is Adventure Time: Side Quests a prequel?
Yes. It’s set during Finn and Jake’s early years in the Land of Ooo, told through standalone, lighter-tone episodes rather than the serialized arcs of the original show’s later seasons.
