‘Celebrity Deathmatch’ Revival in the Works at MTV Studios With Ice Cube Starring, Producing

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – MTV Studios has lined up “Celebrity Deathmatch” as its latest series revival.

Series creator Eric Fogel will return to executive produce, with Ice Cube set to executive produce and star in the new take on the stop-motion animation series. Jeff Kwatinetz of Cube Vision will also executive produce with Ben Hurwitz co-executive producing. The new “Celebrity Deathmatch” will be available as a weekly series for an SVOD or other network partner in 2019.

“We’re excited to grow our partnership with and Cube Vision to reimagine this fan favorite,” said Chris McCarthy, president of MTV, VH1 and CMT. “’Deathmatch’ was the meme before memes, remains a hot topic on social media and will be a smart, funny way to tackle the over-the-top rhetoric of today’s pop culture where it belongs – in the wrestling ring.”

“Celebrity Deathmatch” originally aired from 1998-2001 on MTV. It presented parodies of various celebrities as they engaged in brutal, no-holds barred wrestling matches. It featured the voices of Mills Lane, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Debbie Matenopoulos. MTV2 then relaunched the show for two seasons in 2006 and 2007, with the network then ordering a pilot for a reboot in 2015 that did not go to series.

“Happy to once again be working with Viacom and MTV on a fan favorite like ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’ and to continue our success together,” said Ice Cube.

Ice Cube and Cube Vision are repped by WME. Fogel is repped by Gotham Group.

With its launch back in June , announced that it was also working on new versions of past MTV hits like “Daria,” “Aeon Flux,” “The Real World,” “Made,” and “Undressed.” The “Real World” is set to air on Facebook Watch.