Disney XD has confirmed that Big Hero 6: The Series will premiere on Monday, November 20 with the hour-long TV movie ‘Baymax Returns’. The show will serve as a continuation of Big Hero 6, Disney Animation’s Oscar winning film adaptation of the Marvel Comics series of the same name. Several members of the original Big Hero 6 voice cast are also reprising their roles for the small screen sequel.

Doubling as both a superhero team origin story and coming of age narrative, the Big Hero 6 movie introduced the fictional city of San Fransokyo (a science-fiction hybrid of San Francisco and Tokyo) and its inhabitants to general audiences back in 2014. Big Hero 6: The Series picks up right where the film left off, as teen genius Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) must now juggle his day-to-day challenges as a student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology with his off-campus job: protecting his city from a variety of technologically-enhanced supervillains, with more than a little help from his friends.

As confirmed by the following Twitter update posted by Disney XD, Big Hero 6: The Series will start things off with the premiere of ‘Baymax Returns’ next month. Subsequent episodes of the series will begin airing on Disney XD at a later date in early 2018.

It appears you have elevated excitement levels… Perhaps it is because you found out #BigHero6 premieres on Monday, November 20th at 8pm! pic.twitter.com/LUgqNp1UeU— Disney XD (@DisneyXD) October 17, 2017

This rollout strategy for Big Hero 6: The Series is similar to the one that Disney XD used to launch its DuckTales reboot earlier this year. That approach served the latter show well, allowing time for the positive buzz generated by its own TV movie premiere to spread; and thus, leading to larger ratings for the rest of the cartoon series proper.

Disney XD has already renewed Big Hero 6: The Series for a second season ahead of its premiere, signaling that the network is confident that it has another hit on its hands here. Assuming that “Baymax Returns” is well-received upon its premiere, the show should give Disney XD another fine addition to its slate of original programming. To further ensure the show’s success, Disney will release two special full-length preview episodes for Big Hero 6: The Series exclusively on the DisneyNOW app and Disney XD VOD, right after “Baymax Returns” airs.

There was initially some discussion of a big screen sequel to Big Hero 6 being made, shortly after the film became a critical/commercial hit in theaters. While that no longer seems likely to happen (not in the near future, anyway), it might be for the best. The small screen format will allow the story of Hiro, Baymax, and their friends to continue forward in an episodic fashion, much like the adventures of their comic book predecessors did before them. If there’s any Disney animated property that lends itself to such a storytelling approach, it’s probably the one that started out as a weekly superhero series in the first place.

Big Hero 6: The Series kicks off with ‘Baymax Returns’ on Monday, November 20 at 8 pm EST.

Source: Disney XD