Trivia / The Cuphead Show!

• Acting for Two: Besides Mugman, Frank Todaro also voices the Soul Ball Game Voice in "Carn-Evil", Jerry the shady customer in "Dangerous Mugman", and the earthworm in "Dirt Nap". Tru Valentino (Cuphead) also voices the game show narrator in "Roll the Dice".
• Adored by the Network: Prior to the show's release, Netflix promoted the show like crazy, ranging from TV spots to Times Square billboards. The topping of the cake is a website titled The Cuphead Show! Countdown, where players complete tasks by watching the show's clips and trailers and free souls from the Devil to help Cuphead and Mugman release the series. In addition, the initial order for Season 1 (which has been split into three batches, marketed as three individual seasons) was 36 episodes.
• All-Star Cast: The Japanese dub has a quite notable voice cast, including Natsuki Hanae (Cuphead), Kensho Ono (Mugman), Kenyuu Horiuchi (The Devil), Kazuya Nakai (King Dice), Katsuhisa Houki (Elder Kettle) and Ayane Sakura (Ms. Chalice). This is especially notable given that other Japanese dubs from other Netflix-produced animated series normally rely on amateur voice actors, outside of some lead roles, with the odd exceptions of Love, Death & Robots, Castlevania (2017), Arcane, and DOTA: Dragon's Blood; the latter three also being animated adaptations of video games.
• Ascended Fan Nickname: A somewhat odd variation, but while fans had adopted Tina Nawrocki's pet names for Baroness von Bon Bon's candy minions, said names had not been acknowledged in any official Cuphead franchise merchandise until the episode Sweet Temptation, where Bon Bon's castle is named as "Whippet Creampup" in one of the foreign language credits.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Prior to the Netflix series, many fans of the original game frequently depicted Mugman developing a crush on Cala Maria during her boss battle and became a popular ship in the game's fanbase. A few years later, the show actually featured Mugman instantly falling in love with her after hearing her sing. He even imagines himself attempting to kiss Cala Maria as he's reading in the episode "The I Scream Man".
  • For the fans of the less popular pairing between Captain Brineybeard and Cala Maria, the entirety of "A High Seas Adventure!" is a big ascension for showing Briney being hopelessly smitten over Cala, and her at least kissing him and appreciating his gift while gently turning down his proposal for being Married to the Job.
• The Cast Showoff: In the Japanese dub, Chiaki Takahashi, who is a professional singer by her own right, shows her singing skills as Cala Maria during her debut.
  • Which is to say nothing of the English cast. The singing skills of the likes of Luke Millington-Drake, Grey DeLisle, Natasia Demetriou and Wayne Brady are in full display in various episodes.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Notable guest stars include Wayne Brady as King Dice, Chris Kattan as Werner Werman, Natasia Demetriou as Cala Maria and Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden as Sally Stageplay.
• Content Leak: A few unfinished episodes were first leaked in 2020, two years before the show's premiere.
• Descended Creator: Dave Wasson and Cosmo Segurson, writers of nearly every episode and executive producers, provide incidental voices on the show.
• He Also Did:
  • Jim Soper is a character designer for the series. His retro sensibilities were famously seen as a lead designer for another similar series, Looney Tunes Cartoons.
  • The legendary Dan Haskett is also a recurring character designer on the series. Much like Soper, he also worked on Looney Tunes Cartoons.
  • Storyboard artist and writer Micheal Ruocco is another import from Looney Tunes Cartoons. He previously worked on New Looney Tunes and Bojack Horseman in similar roles.
  • Adam Paloian is a supervising director on this series, a role he also took during his SpongeBob SquarePants tenure.
• The Other Darrin: King Dice was originally voiced by Alana Bridgewater in the game. Here, he's voiced by Wayne Brady.
• Playing Against Type: In the Japanese dub, and while not the first time he had voiced a character who is a little bit crazy in a good way, Natsuki Hanae's role as Cuphead is a departure from voicing either angsty teens or the Only Sane Man of the show.
• Release Date Change: The show was originally supposed to release in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, it was delayed from 2020 to 2022. Production for all 36 episodes also took three years.
• Self-Adaptation: The show is co-created and executive produced by Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, the co-creators of the original game.
• Star-Making Role: For Frank Todaro. While he had multiple roles in dubbed anime and video games, his role as Mugman made him famous.
• Those Two Actors: From the Japanese dub, Natsuki Hanae and Kensho Ono are known for playing video games and tabletop games with each other on the former's YouTube channel, and both were cast as the Japanese voices of Cuphead and Mugman respectively (just as they were back in their Cuphead livestream).
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to animator Luis De la Rosa, Titmouse was one of the studios optioned to work on the series' animation production, before it ultimately went to Lighthouse Studios. Luis produced a test animation featuring an excerpt of "The Devil's Song", concurrently with their Animaniacs (2020) efforts.
  • A bunch of scenes from the montage in Dangerous Mugman were cut in the storyboarding phase, including a visual gag about how the jungle was literally called "Montage Forest".
  • According to head writer Deeki Deke, two unproduced episodes include "Evil and Vile", which features the Devil creating a pair of evil clones of Cuphead & Mugman based on their appearances in the Bad Ending as Evil Cuphead and Vile Mugman respectively, and an episode featuring Cagney Carnation.
• Word of Gay: Head writer for the show, DD, mentions that several characters they worked on are queer such as Stickler, the Mailman and Brineybeard's sword, with Mailman being nonbinary.

---