‘Family Guy’ Spinoff ‘Stewie’ From Seth MacFarlane Gets 2-Season Fox Order For 2027-28
By Nellie Andreeva
March 12, 2026 8:30am
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'Stewie,' (inset) Seth MacFarlane
'Stewie,' (inset) Seth MacFarlane
Fox/Getty
EXCLUSIVE: Proving that one is never too young to headline their own series, Fox has given a two-season order to Stewie, a spinoff of global juggernaut Family Guy centered on the Griffins’ evil genius toddler son. The new animated comedy, which will follow Stewie in preschool and explore time and space travel, comes from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and 20th Television Animation. It is targeted to premiere on Fox during the 2027-28 season, streaming next day on Hulu and internationally on Disney+.
Stewie, whose concept art you can see above, will join Fox’s slate of long-running 20th TV Animation series: Family Guy and American Dad! — both from MacFarlane — as well as The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers, which all received four-season renewals in 2025 as part of an unprecedented 4×4 mega deal. The two-year pickup for Stewie will synch it up with the rest; the deals for all five animated shows are now running through 2029, which is also when Fox’s current $1.5B in-season streaming pact with 20th TV’s Disney sibling Hulu expires.
The episode count for Stewie has not been revealed. I hear it’s slightly less than the 15 episodes per season the legacy 20th Animation series are producing under the current Fox deal.
MacFarlane, who voices Stewie on Family Guy, will do the same on the eponymous spinoff series, which he created with long-time Family Guy writer-producer Kirker Butler.
In the offshoot, after getting the boot from his old preschool, Stewie is forced to enroll in a new one that’s not exactly top-of-the-line. It’s attended by a handful of kids he doesn’t know, and a 75-year-old class turtle with a half-cocked theory on just about every subject. Stewie’s miserable, the other kids are miserable, and even the turtle is miserable… until Stewie begins rolling out his trusty array of devices to take them anywhere in space and time, turning every boring day at school into an insane and surreal adventure.
It is still early days but I hear the spinoff will have its own world at a new school with new characters and will not impact Stewie on Family Guy where the eloquent toddler with upper-class British accent currently attends Quahog Preschool.
As the concept art for Stewie suggests, it will feature references to the mothership series. For instance, the hyper intelligent and mischievous little boy is seen holding his favorite teddy bear Rupert and standing on the return pad of the time machine he built on Family Guy, which he has used a number of times, most notably to travel back in time and save his beloved dog and companion Brian from being killed by a car. Brian is expected to make appearances on the offshoot.
Over the course of Family Guy’s 24-year run to date, Stewie has evolved (and mellowed), with his priorities shifting from his sole focus on killing his mom Lois and achieving world domination to his friendship and adventures with Brian as well as creating more complex scientific inventions, including multiverse-traversing devices.
MacFarlane executive produces Stewie for Fuzzy Door alongside Butler, who serves as showrunner, and Kara Vallow. 20th Animation is the studio.
“I’d like to thank Fox for this incredible opportunity, and I’m excited to start pretending I’m collaborating closely with them on the show,” MacFarlane said in his signature deadpan style.
Butler went for a mix of serious and humorous in his statement on the pickup.
“I am honored and humbled that Seth, 20th Television Animation and Fox have trusted me with one of the most iconic animated characters in the history of television. I have known Seth for more than two decades, worked with him on half a dozen projects, and I am hopeful this is the one where he finally learns my name.”
This marks the second Family Guy spinoff, following the 2009 The Cleveland Show, which ran on Fox for four seasons. Butler worked with MacFarlane on both Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.
Family Guy, which overcame an early cancellation to become a cultural phenomenon, recently marked its 450th episode with the Season 24 premiere on Fox where it has remained among the network’s top streaming performers for almost a decade. All episodes of Family Guy as well as American Dad!, which MacFarlane co-created, stream on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally. Both series are produced by Fuzzy Door, with MacFarlane as executive producer and primary voice actor.
In 2025, Family Guy delivered more than 3 billion total multiplatform minutes watched and ranked as the second most-watched adult animation streaming title and the No. 7 streaming program, charting on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 for 37 weeks, while American Dad! ranked as the third most-watched adult animation streaming title. Overall, Seth MacFarlane’s catalog of TV series and films generated more than 60 billion streaming minutes across platforms last year.
For his work on Family Guy, where he portrays Stewie, Brian as well as the dad Peter Griffin, MacFarlane has won five Emmys, including four for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance. Family Guy also became a rare animated show to land an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy nomination.
Under Fuzzy Door’s multi-year TV deal with Universal Studio Group, the company produces the highly-rated Ted prequel series for Peacock whose second season premiered March 5. Fuzzy Door also has a Ted animated series for the streamer, with the main cast from the movies reprising their roles, and produces Peacock’s breakout new series The ‘Burbs starring Keke Palmer, which drew nearly one billion viewing minutes in the first 11 days.
MacFarlane is repped by WME, Joy Fehily Management & Consulting and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
deadline.com
By Nellie Andreeva
March 12, 2026 8:30am
Services to share this page.
Share on Facebook
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Google Preferred
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'Stewie,' (inset) Seth MacFarlane
'Stewie,' (inset) Seth MacFarlane
Fox/Getty
EXCLUSIVE: Proving that one is never too young to headline their own series, Fox has given a two-season order to Stewie, a spinoff of global juggernaut Family Guy centered on the Griffins’ evil genius toddler son. The new animated comedy, which will follow Stewie in preschool and explore time and space travel, comes from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and 20th Television Animation. It is targeted to premiere on Fox during the 2027-28 season, streaming next day on Hulu and internationally on Disney+.
Stewie, whose concept art you can see above, will join Fox’s slate of long-running 20th TV Animation series: Family Guy and American Dad! — both from MacFarlane — as well as The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers, which all received four-season renewals in 2025 as part of an unprecedented 4×4 mega deal. The two-year pickup for Stewie will synch it up with the rest; the deals for all five animated shows are now running through 2029, which is also when Fox’s current $1.5B in-season streaming pact with 20th TV’s Disney sibling Hulu expires.
The episode count for Stewie has not been revealed. I hear it’s slightly less than the 15 episodes per season the legacy 20th Animation series are producing under the current Fox deal.
MacFarlane, who voices Stewie on Family Guy, will do the same on the eponymous spinoff series, which he created with long-time Family Guy writer-producer Kirker Butler.
In the offshoot, after getting the boot from his old preschool, Stewie is forced to enroll in a new one that’s not exactly top-of-the-line. It’s attended by a handful of kids he doesn’t know, and a 75-year-old class turtle with a half-cocked theory on just about every subject. Stewie’s miserable, the other kids are miserable, and even the turtle is miserable… until Stewie begins rolling out his trusty array of devices to take them anywhere in space and time, turning every boring day at school into an insane and surreal adventure.
It is still early days but I hear the spinoff will have its own world at a new school with new characters and will not impact Stewie on Family Guy where the eloquent toddler with upper-class British accent currently attends Quahog Preschool.
As the concept art for Stewie suggests, it will feature references to the mothership series. For instance, the hyper intelligent and mischievous little boy is seen holding his favorite teddy bear Rupert and standing on the return pad of the time machine he built on Family Guy, which he has used a number of times, most notably to travel back in time and save his beloved dog and companion Brian from being killed by a car. Brian is expected to make appearances on the offshoot.
Over the course of Family Guy’s 24-year run to date, Stewie has evolved (and mellowed), with his priorities shifting from his sole focus on killing his mom Lois and achieving world domination to his friendship and adventures with Brian as well as creating more complex scientific inventions, including multiverse-traversing devices.
MacFarlane executive produces Stewie for Fuzzy Door alongside Butler, who serves as showrunner, and Kara Vallow. 20th Animation is the studio.
“I’d like to thank Fox for this incredible opportunity, and I’m excited to start pretending I’m collaborating closely with them on the show,” MacFarlane said in his signature deadpan style.
Butler went for a mix of serious and humorous in his statement on the pickup.
“I am honored and humbled that Seth, 20th Television Animation and Fox have trusted me with one of the most iconic animated characters in the history of television. I have known Seth for more than two decades, worked with him on half a dozen projects, and I am hopeful this is the one where he finally learns my name.”
This marks the second Family Guy spinoff, following the 2009 The Cleveland Show, which ran on Fox for four seasons. Butler worked with MacFarlane on both Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.
Family Guy, which overcame an early cancellation to become a cultural phenomenon, recently marked its 450th episode with the Season 24 premiere on Fox where it has remained among the network’s top streaming performers for almost a decade. All episodes of Family Guy as well as American Dad!, which MacFarlane co-created, stream on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally. Both series are produced by Fuzzy Door, with MacFarlane as executive producer and primary voice actor.
In 2025, Family Guy delivered more than 3 billion total multiplatform minutes watched and ranked as the second most-watched adult animation streaming title and the No. 7 streaming program, charting on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 for 37 weeks, while American Dad! ranked as the third most-watched adult animation streaming title. Overall, Seth MacFarlane’s catalog of TV series and films generated more than 60 billion streaming minutes across platforms last year.
For his work on Family Guy, where he portrays Stewie, Brian as well as the dad Peter Griffin, MacFarlane has won five Emmys, including four for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance. Family Guy also became a rare animated show to land an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy nomination.
Under Fuzzy Door’s multi-year TV deal with Universal Studio Group, the company produces the highly-rated Ted prequel series for Peacock whose second season premiered March 5. Fuzzy Door also has a Ted animated series for the streamer, with the main cast from the movies reprising their roles, and produces Peacock’s breakout new series The ‘Burbs starring Keke Palmer, which drew nearly one billion viewing minutes in the first 11 days.
MacFarlane is repped by WME, Joy Fehily Management & Consulting and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
'Family Guy' Spinoff 'Stewie' Gets 2-Season Fox Order (Exclusive)
A 'Family Guy' spinoff series 'Stewie', from Seth MacFarlane, has received a 2-season order from Fox for 2027-28.
deadline.com