*We are excited about Apple’s all-new Peanuts special, “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin,” which spotlights its first Black character.
“As the origin story for one of Peanuts’ most beloved characters, the special follows Franklin Armstrong as he moves to a new town and navigates new friendships,” per the series synopsis.
Executive produced by Craig Schulz, co-written by Franklin’s namesake and cartoonist Robb Armstrong, and directed by Emmy Award-winner Raymond S. Persi, “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin” follows Franklin as he moves to a new town and navigates new friendships.
Per the news release: “Franklin’s family is always on the move with his dad’s military job, and everywhere he goes Franklin finds support in a notebook filled with his grandfather’s advice on friendship. But when Franklin tries his usual strategies with the Peanuts gang, he has trouble fitting in. That’s until he learns about the neighborhood Soap Box Derby race – according to his grandfather, everyone loves a winner! He’s sure that winning the race will also mean winning over some new friends. All he needs is a partner, which he finds in Charlie Brown. Franklin and Charlie Brown work together to build a car and in the process become good buddies. But as the race nears, the pressure mounts – can their car and their newfound friendship make it to the finish line?”
The new Apple TV+ special revisits Frankin’s first meeting with Charlie Brown. As ABC News reports, while race is never directly mentioned, Franklin surveys his new community’s kids after he arrives and remarks, “One thing was for sure: There was a lack of variety in this place.”
“I never wanted to come off preachy or anything, but it needed to be handled in the same way that I handled it in ‘Jump Start (strip),’” Armstrong told ABC News. “I don’t come out and call people anything. I let the characters participate in a problem solving process.”
Persi added, “To have this very simple idea of two children who don’t know about racism, having fun playing at the beach, building something together, I think was just so smart.”
Persi said fans will see Franklin and Charlie Brown’s friendship “grow in real-time, in the way that real friendships do.”
EUR’s Ny MaGee spoke to Schulz and Armstrong about what they hope this new special adds to Franklin’s legacy and to the broader Peanuts universe. Watch our exclusive conversation via the clip below.
Produced for Apple TV+ by Peanuts and WildBrain, “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin” premieres globally on Friday, February 16.
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