EXCLUSIVE: As it marks its 25th anniversary, David Spade‘s 2001 feature comedy Joe Dirt is eying a return with a followup animated series. The sequel, titled Joe Dirt, is in development at Fox with Spade set to voice the titular character and executive produce.

The animated series, written by Scott Gairdner based on the 2001 Columbia film, is co-produced by sibling Sony Pictures Television and Fox Entertainment.

It’s now 25 years later, and Joe Dirt (Spade) keeps on keepin’ on. He’s still in love with Brandy, his skull still hasn’t un-fused with the mullet, and most of all, he’s still got his eternal optimism. And he needs it – just because he’s married with three teenage daughters doesn’t mean his problems are over. The messes are bigger, and Joe’s mop and bucket just won’t cut it.

Spade executive produces with Fred Wolf, who co-wrote the film with him, Gairdner, as well as Doug Robinson and Lauren Moffat of Sony TV-based Doug Robinson Productions.

Sony TV previously developed a different animated series take on Spade’s mullet-sporting hero, which was set up at TBS in 2010. It was written/executive produced by Spade, Wolf and Donick Carey and executive produced by Robinson, then Head of TV for Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison which produced the original film and it’s 2015 sequel Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser, also co-written by Spade and Wolf. It premiered on Sony’s Crackle to become the first movie sequel for streaming.

Gairdner directed Conan O’Brien’s cold opens and other pre-taped segments for the 2025 and 2026 Academy Awards, as well as Nikki Glaser’s pre-taped material for the 2026 Golden Globe Awards. In animation, he created the Comedy Central series Moonbeam City, wrote for Fox’s HouseBroken, and served as executive producer on Kyle Mooney’s Saturday Morning All Star Hits! for Netflix. His additional credits include Conan (TBS), Lords of Synth (Adult Swim), and Cuplicated (Vioobu). Gairdner is repped by Verve and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis.