Aaron McGruder, creator and executive producer of The Boondocks, has had no involvement with the upcoming fourth season of the cartoon, Adult Swim confirms, fueling suspicions that began on Facebook, where McGruder claimed The Boondocks page had been "hijacked."
According to a press release issued by Adult Swim, "this season was produced without the involvement of Aaron McGruder, when a mutually agreeable production schedule could not be determined."
In response to a request for comment, Aaron McGruder would only confirm that he has had no involvement with this season of the show.
After a four-year hiatus, the new season was announced on the official Boondocks Facebook page a week ago. It's set to return with new episodes on April 21.
McGruder immediately took to his new project's Black Jesus' Facebook page to state: "Just found out someone has hijacked THE BOONDOCKS Facebook page. This was done without my permission and I have absolutely no control over the content being posted as of Friday, March 14."
While it is unclear how and when the decision was reached, fans of the show are now left with more questions than answers. After McGruder claimed that The Boondocks page was "hijacked," some were left wondering who's responsible for the hijacking. Since McGruder took the feud to a public page, fans wonder if his inability to access the page was the first news he had that he wouldn't be involved with the show.
When exactly did McGruder part company with the cartoon he founded years ago, and what are the terms of his departure?
News of McGruder's departure, for some fans, must feel like buying tickets to a Public Enemy show only to find out that Chuck D is no longer with the group.
From the outset, the comic strip was brash and bold, seen through the eyes of young black radical Huey Freeman. The Boondocks pulled no punches when satirizing African-American culture and American politics. The strip was so controversial that after it was nationally syndicated, some newspapers decided to pull McGruder out of the cartoon section and instead ran it in the op-ed portion of the paper.
While both sides are being tight-lipped as to what exactly happened, it's clear that McGruder is no longer connected to the innovative television project that was created from his cartoon strip while he was in college at the University of Maryland. Of course, confirmation of that came only after The Root broke the news of the Facebook controversy on Thursday.