Development The idea for the show originated in mid-2010.
Olan Rogers uploaded the first episode of a planned ten-part animated web-series titled
Gary Space to his personal
Facebook channel. The project went on hiatus three episodes in, and Rogers eventually explained on Facebook that both he and the series' artist, Dan Brown, were tending to separate projects at the time, but were in talks of continuing. On April 30, 2013, Rogers confirmed that he was rebooting and producing a season of
Gary Space episodes to release at once. Over two years later, Rogers revealed that a new short for the reboot for
Gary Space was planned to be pitched to
Cartoon Network, in addition to premiering the episode at
Buffer Festival if nothing came from the pitch. In early 2016, Rogers announced that his project had been retitled
Final Spaceto avoid similarities with
Steven Universeand revealed screenshots of the short via a vlog on his YouTube channel. The pilot for
Final Space was posted on Rogers' YouTube channel with voices by himself and a friend of his, Coty Galloway; Galloway had collaborated with Rogers in a
Star Wars fan film called
The Scarlet Lance. The video caught the attention of
Conan O'Brien, who invited him to Los Angeles to pitch
Final Space to
TBS as a full series and also joined production as an executive producer alongside Rogers and
3rd Rock from the Sun writer and producer
David Sacks. Other members of O'Brien's company,
Conaco (David Kissinger, Larry Sullivan and Jeff Ross), and members of New Form who executive produced the pilot short (Kathleen Grace, Melissa Schneider and Matt Hoklotubbe) joined as executive producers as well. To balance out Rogers' inexperience in the industry, Conaco brought in Sacks to also serve as the showrunner for the series. After two weeks of working with Sacks and Jake Sidwell ( of the series alongside Shelby Merry) on the pitch, Rogers and Sacks pitched the show to TBS; as well as
Comedy Central,
Fox,
FX, YouTube, and
Fullscreen; all six companies wanted the series and resulted in a bidding war between the studios over the series, with TBS acquiring the series. On December 2, 2016, it was announced that the channel had given a series order.
Casting Rogers announced in December 2016 that he voices the main characters, Gary and Mooncake. In July 2017, an additional cast list of
Fred Armisen, Conan O'Brien,
Keith David, Coty Galloway (reprising from the pilot),
Tom Kenny,
Caleb McLaughlin,
John DiMaggio,
Ron Perlman,
Shannon Purser,
Andy Richter,
David Tennant, and
Steven Yeun was revealed.
Animation Animation for the series is handled by
ShadowMachine in
Los Angeles and outsourced to
Canadian studio
Jam Filled using the
Toon Boom Harmony software. The show uses
NASA space imagery for the space backgrounds.
Future When asked on
Twitter about the series' longevity, Olan Rogers had stated that he had at least six seasons' worth of material thought up for the show, including an ending for
Final Space in case the series gets cancelled in the future. On September 10, 2021, Rogers posted a video to his YouTube account stating that season 3 would be the show's last season. On April 10, 2022, Rogers revealed on his Twitter that there is a chance that the show could be brought back in the future for an hour-long special to wrap up the story. On May 11, Rogers stated that he was still trying to put an end to the series. On June 15, after being unable to reach a deal to conclude the series in any medium, Rogers launched a
Kickstarter for a short film titled
Godspeed, spawned from unused ideas related to the series. At the end of the campaign, the crowdfund raised $464,438 in total. On April 24, 2023, Rogers announced that Warner Bros. Discovery gave him a license to write and self-publish a graphic novel to end the series under various limitations. The novel, titled
Final Space: The Final Chapter, is set to be released in June 2026. ==Promotion and release==