It’s always a shame when an actor we’ve come to know and love in a role doesn’t end up reprising their character in any given media franchise, and doubly so when said star feels a degree of attachment to their alter-ego.
Such is the case for Kumail Nanjiani and his role as Prismo in Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake. We’d grown to know and love the Eternals star as the Wish Master in the spin-off’s namesake series, but alas, when we would next see the character pop up on screen, he’d have a different voice.
In a since-deleted post on X (Twitter) reported on by Deadline, Nanjiani clarified that he did not reprise his role in Fionna & Cake, even though he would have loved to do so. What turned a melancholic affair into an awkward one, however, was the response to said tweet by Adventure Time showrunner Adam Muto – who followed up by saying that the powers behind Fionna & Cake had reached out to Nanjiani, who passed on the opportunity on his behalf:
We can only imagine the uncomfortable conversation that transpired between Nanjiani and his agent in the wake of this exchange. Why the star’s reps passed on the offer remains unknown; perhaps they were trying to keep his calendar open for Eternals 2, or some general reprisal of his Marvel character, or maybe they presumed Nanjiani’s time was simply too valuable nowadays to be messing around with side characters in cartoons.
Whatever the reason may be, it’s clear that Nanjiani’s answer would have been different, had he been approached directly.
Kumail Nanjiani is set to star alongside Mandy Moore in an Insidious spin-off titled Thread: An Insidious Tale, as well as an untitled Ghostbusters sequel (via IMDb). Meanwhile, if you’re interested in Jake’s whereabouts during Fionna & Cake, you can catch yourself up on everything we know here.
New episodes of Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake are debuting weekly on Max.