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[[folder:In General]]

* ChannelHop:
** The series moved from Cartoon Network to Adult Swim's Toonami block, with Williams Street now producing the series alongside Cartoon Network Studios. Because of this, the entire series's run and property is now considered part of Adult Swim.
** The first four seasons were animated by Creator/RoughDraftStudios. The fifth season was entirety animated by Creator/DigitalEMation with the exception of XCVIII, which Rough Draft animated.
* CreatorBacklash: After the show moved to Adult Swim for its fifth season, it's been reclassified as an Adult Swim show completely, even the original four seasons. As a result, Cartoon Network has rarely ever talk about the show on air or on social media and its likely they never will again.
* CreatorsApathy: Part of why the movie never happened was because the crew was burned out after making the show for four straight years and felt that they were too creatively exhausted to give the series the ending it deserved, deciding it was more respectable to leave it open ended. They were unaware, however, that picking it up again would take as long as it did.
* CelebrityVoiceActor: In the Japanese dub, Aku is played by the late Bunta Sugawara, best known as Kamaji in ''Anime/SpiritedAway'' and Shozo Hirono in ''Film/BattlesWithoutHonorAndHumanity'', while Jack was voiced by movie actor Takashi Ukaji, who voiced Raoh in the ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' films and the ''Legends of the Dark King'' TV series.
* TheDanza: In episode XIII, Creator/PhilLaMarr voices a young boy named Phil, who performs an extremely dead-on imitation of Jack himself.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Creator/CartoonNetwork executives decided not to risk spending money on another movie that might not break even after the mixed reception and poor ticket sales of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie''. They did offer to extend the show for another thirteen episodes (a full season), but Genndy declined and let the original series finish out its 52-episode contract.
* FakeNationality: Samurai Jack and Ashi, two Japanese characters, are voiced by Afro-American Creator/PhilLaMarr and Caucasian Canadian-American Creator/TaraStrong, respectively. Otherwise averted with most of the other Japanese characters, however, who are all played by actors of East Asian (though [[InterchangeableAsianCultures not always Japanese]]) ancestry.
* FakeScot: Creator/JohnDiMaggio, an American, voices the Scotsman, who is of course Scottish.
* KidsMealToy: Subway had a set of five toys in 2002. There were boxing figures of Jack and Aku, the Minion Buster, the Aku Popper, and Jet Jack.
* RealitySubtext: This show about traveling one thousand years into the future debuted in 2001 amidst cultural excitement and anxieties over [[TurnOfTheMillennium The New Millennium]].
* ReferencedBy: Samurai Jack make a cameo in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdoNlV9GH6E this song]].
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: When [adult swim] announced that the original ''Samurai Jack'' would return to Creator/{{Toonami}}, its timeslot was not revealed until a couple weeks before its airdate, when it was revealed that it would air at [=4:00am=]. Granted, ''Samurai Jack'' was an old show at this point, though considering that (1) ''Samurai Jack'' hadn't aired on Toonami for about six years, (2) it was replacing ''Anime/{{FLCL}}''--a show that was older than ''Samurai Jack'', had been rerun into the ground on [adult swim], has only ''six episodes'' compared to ''Samurai'''s 52 (not counting the revival), and was airing at [=2:30am=] because it was AdoredByTheNetwork--and (3) [=4:00am=] is the deadest hour of the night (one usually reserved for reruns), it was still very disappointing. This did not stop the new season from being greenlit, however, so it clearly did well enough for the network's tastes. Averted with that new season as it was heavily promoted and aired at the very beginning of the block.
** The show itself vanished entirely when the City Era arrived and the last 4 episodes didn't air until August of that year, taking 9 months to air when related to the prevoius episode "Jack Vs. Aku", which aired on November 2003.
* ScheduleSlip: When the new season was announced in December of 2015, the announcement was accompanied with an admittedly vague premiere date of "late 2016". The show finally received its official premiere date (11 March 2017) two months before that airdate.
* SequelGap: The show's original run ended in 2004. After a comic book continuation by Creator/IDWPublishing ran from 2013 to 2015, the show's final season was announced in late 2015 and began airing in 2017 (nearly thirteen years after the original show's run ended).
* ShrugOfGod: Genndy admitted that he never gave much thought to some of the characters' names, up to and including Jack himself, whose real name is never revealed. When asked what Jack's father's name was, he simply replied "[[TheUnreveal Emperor]]."
* WordOfSaintPaul: This is defied in one respect: Phil [=LaMarr=] said he was regularly asked between 2004 and 2017 if Jack would ever make it home. He would respond along the lines of "that's above my pay grade".
* WriterRevolt: After having [[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory done]] [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls two]] dialogue-heavy shows with ThickLineAnimation, Genndy wanted to do a show with neither.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: Storyboard artist Brian Andrews is well-versed in actual martial arts, being a practitioner of Chinese wushu. It clearly shows in the animation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Season 5]]

* ActingForTwo:
** Creator/GreyDeLisle voices the High Priestess and the Scotsman's Daughters. She also voiced a good amount of characters during the original run of the series.
** Creator/TaraStrong voiced Ashi and most of the daughters of Aku. She also voiced many characters during the show's early years.
* AdoredByTheNetwork: It gets rerun by Creator/AdultSwim a lot, with frequent back-to-back episodes and marathons even well after it finished its run.
* ApprovalOfGod: Sort of. According to [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/gsahrt/greg_baldwin_on_meeting_makos_grandkids/ Greg Baldwin]], {{Creator/Mako}}'s daughter sat in on a recording session during season 5. When he was done, she hugged him and said "It's like he was back." Baldwin still doesn't think he gives a good impression of Mako, but he did say he was proud to give that moment to her.
* AprilFoolsDay: The fourth episode of Season 5 was pre-empted on April Fools' Day 2017 on American airwaves. [[BaitAndSwitch In its place]] was the unannounced Season 3 premiere of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', which ran on a four-hour marathon loop prior to midnight (and the rest of Creator/{{Toonami}} running as usual).
* ChannelHop: Kind of. While Creator/AdultSwim is, strictly speaking, simply Creator/CartoonNetwork's nighttime block, the two are usually treated as separate entities altogether. This makes ''Samurai Jack'' the only series to air new episodes under both the Cartoon Network banner and the [adult swim] banner.
** In the UK, [adult swim] was on {{Creator/Fox}} instead of Cartoon Network during the season's run, so it aired there.
** Accordingly, the original run of the series was re-labeled under the [adult swim] banner on all media since 2017, since its status as a kid's cartoon has apparently been irrevocably tarred by the content of Season 5. As a result, the whole franchise has become a property of Adult Swim instead of Cartoon Network.
* CreatorBacklash: While he enjoyed voicing the character, Creator/GregBaldwin has admitted that he felt his take on Aku "sorta sucked" compared to Mako's original voice. Specifically, he felt he couldn't match Mako's ability to utilize MoodWhiplash for Aku's comedic and frightening sides.
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Creator/PhilLaMarr and Creator/KeeganMichaelKey were both previously cast members on ''Series/MadTV1995''.
* MemeAcknowledgment: Greg Baldwin is aware of the [[https://twitter.com/GregBaldwinIroh/status/866384652453371904 "EXTRA THICC"]] meme.
* TheOtherDarrin:
** As Creator/{{Mako}} died in-between seasons, Aku is voiced by Greg Baldwin, who likewise took over his role of Iroh in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and first did Aku's voice in ''VideoGame/FusionFall'' (which also makes this a RoleReprise).
** Creator/KeeganMichaelKey voices Da Samurai in "XCVII", when he was previously voiced by Creator/DavidAlanGrier.
** The now-old Olivia is played by Creator/GreyDeLisle instead of Creator/KathSoucie.
** Odin is voiced by Creator/AaronLaPlante instead of Richard [=McGonagle=].
* RecycledScript: The premise of Jack becoming frustrated with his lack of progress and the perceived hopelessness of his quest was tackled in several episodes of the original series, in various ways, with various degrees of focus. The big difference here: the script is playing for keeps this time around, and the frustration is no longer transitory -- it has become [[DespairEventHorizon all-encompassing.]]
* RefittedForSequel: There were plans for a movie that [[DevelopmentHell just had way too many false starts]], so Genndy eventually reworked those plans into a ten-episode final season.
* RoleReprise: While it's a given that Creator/PhilLaMarr would return to voice Jack in season 5, less obvious is Greg Baldwin voicing Aku. While he's TheOtherDarrin to Creator/{{Mako}}, he did voice the character before in the ''VideoGame/FusionFall'' game, so it also qualifies as this. Later, Creator/JohnDiMaggio returns to his role as the Scotsman.
* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Genndy originally wanted to end the series with a movie. Creator/CartoonNetwork showed no interest after the failure of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie'', so Genndy spent the decade after the show's original cancellation pitching the finale movie to various studios. He ultimately decided to end the show with one last TV season on Creator/AdultSwim.
* SequelGap: The fourth season aired in 2004. It took thirteen years before the fifth and final season.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Cartoon Network offered to extend the series for another thirteen episodes, but Creator/GenndyTartakovsky, exhausted from making the show for four years with no break and keen to start his own indie studio, opted to hold out for a theatrical feature instead. The eventual 2017 revival was a compromise.
** Creator/JJAbrams came very close to getting the proposed feature film off the ground. According to Genndy, it fell apart because Abrams' take on the story had too much plot.
** Genndy considered giving Aku [[TheNthDoctor an entirely new voice and explaining why]] after Mako passed away, but he decided to cast Greg Baldwin instead. The end result [[DownplayedTrope went halfway]]: Aku says in a Season Five episode that he is a "new" Aku, [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall referencing]] both his voice (which is considerably deeper and more Slavic than Mako's reedy, Japanese-accented portrayal) and his new "beleaguered tyrant" characterization.
** "The Tale of X-49" was originally a lot more in line with the tone the show took in Season 5, but the fact that it was still topside of [adult swim] meant daytime censor hounds were entitled to police the show and object to allowing these scenes to air. This meant that Genndy may have planned for this level of violence and grit all along. It featured two deleted scenes, one where X-49 apparently [[BoomHeadshot capped a silhouetted figure and what looked like blood squirted out]], possibly having grazed Jack or hitting one of the deactivated robots in the factory they were fighting in. The episode also featured the first chronological inclusion of profanity (courtesy of Creator/DaranNorris) that was cut from the finished episode, as after Lulu was kidnapped, X-49 said, "Damn feelings." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BtBkVYfqvM See it all here (the voice acting doesn't come in until the last piece of deleted material).]] It makes the episode feel even more inspired by the futuristic/spaghetti western/film noir tale of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', which includes its own fair share of guns versus swords, and is a series Daran Norris has also lent his voice to when [[Anime/CowboyBebopKnockinOnHeavensDoor the movie]] was dubbed into English.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: Jack's BeardOfSorrow was based on the kind of beard Genndy would grow out whenever he and his wife went camping.
* WriteWhoYouKnow: Genndy based Ashi on a childhood crush.
[[/folder]]
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