Posted in: Disney+, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: Alex Hirsch, disney, Gravity Falls

More Gravity Falls? Disney Confirms "Conversations" with Alex Hirsch

Executive VP of Television Animation & Disney Branded Television Meredith Roberts had an update regarding Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls.

It's been nearly two years since we last reported on Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls, the popular animated series with a fanbase as strong as ever – even eight years after it ended. First hitting Disney Channel screens in 2012, the series focused on twins Dipper and Mabel Pines, who investigate supernatural & paranormal mysteries with their great-uncle Stan from The Mystery Shack, located in the Oregon town of the show's title. The show would end its run after two seasons in 2016 (moving to Disney XD in 2014), with Hirsh signing a multi-year overall deal two years later with Netflix to produce animated projects for adults and kids. But the fans haven't given up on the possibility of the show returning – and now, it sounds like there might just be some light at the end of that tunnel. Speaking with The Direct, Executive Vice President of Television Animation and Disney Branded Television Meredith Roberts shared, "You know, we're in conversations with Alex [Hirsch]. He's about to publish a book with Disney on his project. And we also do some shorts. So never say never."

Roberts is referencing "Bill Cipher's" (as told to Hirsch) The Book of Bill, which will arrive this July from Disney Press. The release will offer the Big Bad's perspective on what went down in and around Gravity Falls, as well as a chance to tell his evil origin story and much more—and there might just be a few puzzles and ciphers along the way. Only two years prior, Hirsch posted a thread on Twitter in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the animated series, demonstrating the fights Hirsch and the team had with the studio's Standards and Practices department to get into so that the show could make your screens.

Clocking in at just under five minutes, the clip offered example after example of instances where S&P took issue with content they considered too sexual/adult, flirted too close to what they considered to be "red-button" social issues, etc. Along with the notes from S&P, Hirsch also shared how they approached pushing back on what were considered questionable judgment calls:

S&P: "Please revise poop face as it comes across as a replacement for 'shitface.' Prior use of Mabel saying 'poop, poop and butts' in the episode 'Fight Fighters' came across as more childlike and not as offensive."

Hirsch: Straight-to-the-point response shutting down the idea that young viewers would be offended by "poop face."

S&P: "It has come to our attention that 'hoo-ha' is a slang term for vagina. Please revise."

Hirsch: "It is a proper word meaning 'excitement' or 'hullabaloo,' and that is clearly its meaning here. The context is an owl-themed restaurant called Hoo-Ha's Jamboree. Not changing."

Another example involved S&P finding Sheriff Daryl Blubs putting his arm around Deputy Durland (a gay couple) a little too sexual ("Please revise the action of Blubs putting his arm around Durland. As noted in previous concerns, their affectionate relationship should remain comical versus flirtatious") as well as the use of any religious symbolism & practices that some viewers might find offensive ("Why should we be held hostage to any imaginary knee-jerk career complainer who could conceivably go out of their way to pretend to be offended by this?"). Here's a look at Hirsch's full thread, which is filled with some fascinating insights into the collision between art, commerce, and vaguely defined "public standards":

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