AMC Picks Up Animated Drama ‘Pantheon’ With Two-Season Order

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – AMC has greenlit the animated drama “Pantheon,” with the cabler giving the series a two-season order.

The one-hour show is based on a series of short stories by Ken Liu about Uploaded Intelligence, or human consciousness uploaded to the cloud.

This marks the first animated series has ever ordered. The first season will consist of eight episodes and focus on Maddie, a bullied teen who receives mysterious help from someone online.

The stranger is soon revealed to be her recently deceased father, David, whose consciousness has been uploaded to the cloud following an experimental destructive brain scan. David is the first of a new kind of being: an “Uploaded Intelligence” or “UI”, but he will not be the last, as a global conspiracy unfolds that threatens to trigger a new kind of world war.

Craig Silverstein will serve as the writer and showrunner, with Liu serving as a consulting producer. Titmouse will provide the animation, with AMC Studios producing. SIlverstein is no stranger to AMC, having previously created the historical drama “Turn: Washington’s Spies” for the network

“‘Pantheon’ is an entertaining and provocative series about personal relationships and what happens to them when the boundary of life is removed from the human condition,” said Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios. “And we’re looking to push other boundaries here too, in making an animated drama that aims to be every bit as moving, immersive and visceral as any premium, live-action scripted series. We are fortunate to have incredible source material from Ken Liu, one of the most celebrated science fiction writers at work today, and we are delighted to once again be working with Craig Silverstein. Both of these writers know how to weave the intimate and the epic into a powerful tale.”

This is not the first time AMC has given out a two-season order for a show. The network has previously stated that the new upcoming “Walking Dead” series, “World Beyond,” will run for two seasons. AMC is also prepping the two-season event series “61st Street” starring Courtney B. Vance from showrunner and executive producer Peter Moffat as well as executive producer Michael B. Jordan.