‘Fionna and Cake:’ A New York Comic Con Retrospective

The con season marches on, and it’s the best time to take a look back as we prepare for New York’s biggest convention of the year, New York Comic Con. Last year the theme brought out the horror fans in us all with the convention’s theme reminding us how important the genre is and how lore can truly drive a series and the fans who love it. We had It: Welcome to Derry and the deep cut Sinners cosplays and more extended worlds of the comics, shows, and animation we know and love. I had a chance to sit down with the voice actors and creators of the Adventure Time fan fiction turned fully realized world of Fionna and Cake. 

Sailor Fionna

Living in a world inside a world born from the chaotic mind of a tortured genius comes Fionna and Cake. If you are a die-hard Adventure Time fan, this is the unlikely spin-off you did not, and maybe still don’t know, goes hard in the paint. I had the utmost pleasure of catching up with Fionna, Cake, Huntress, and the Executive Producer of this new adventure at New York Comic Con this past fall. 

For fans of the former Cartoon Network show Adventure Time, we know of Fionna and Cake as the one-time, turned regular special episodes of a gender bended world where Finn is Fionna, and Jake is Cake, and Marceline is Marshall Lee and so on and so forth. Spawned as a fan fiction from the altered mind of the Ice King, this twisted tale is a wholesome ‘what-if’ for those who feel connected to the iconic Adventure Time characters. But what if… their world was much more than a princess-obsessed wizard’s fan fiction? What if something happened and these worlds were real? 

Fionna the Tour Bus Guide

The show takes you on a multiversal ride (as everything in the nerdosphere does these days), while grounding itself in the intricate lore of Adventure Time. Using one of the most beloved storylines, the origins of the Ice King, also known as Simon Petrikov, and his long-lost love Betty. Fionna and Cake expand the limits beyond what anyone could have expected. My favorite Adventure Time storylines have always been Simon’s origins and the apocalyptic evil that is the Litch. This Fionna and Cake series is coming up on my left out of nowhere running toe to toe with being one of the most engaging plots yet. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil too much – just a taste to convince you this is worth a binge.

We are introduced to a working-class Fionna Campbell. Clearly, she is a dreamer who has frustratingly become a part of the mundane life of work and survival. At night, she dreams in Sailor Moon superhero fashion, saving citizens from imminent danger such as monsters and other supernatural elements. Her magic cat, Cake, is helping along the way. By day, she is a studio apartment living, bus tour guide who hates her life. Her cat doesn’t talk, and Fionna can’t seem to keep a job or a love interest. 

While her dreams of ice princess and stretchy cats seem like a fantasy, something is telling us it’s much more. When more is revealed about the truth of her existence and the otherworldly possibilities, we are thrown into a not-so-mundane life. Let’s just say Simon’s mind and obsessive need to find and free his Betty, mixed with the careless actions of our interdimensional protector Prismo, make this web of reality so much deeper than you can imagine. Because the show is now an HBOMax original, I am convinced they are able to push the envelope in ways its predecessor could not. Season two came out early this year, so you have 20 episodes to watch back to back, and while a season three has not been confirmed, this is not the last we will see of Fionna and Cake, because this connected universe is truly infinite. 

I was beyond geeked to interview the cast and crew about their experience on the show and what it’s like being a part of this big bang of a universe. 

Cake the Cat

I was lucky enough to be first introduced to the iconic actor Roz Ryan. Ryan, whose voice is heard as Bubbie in The Misadventures of Flapjack, and famously known as Disney’s Hercules muse Thalia!! (A fan favorite, of course.) But currently, Ryan is the cheeky, bold, and magical cat Cake. She walks up wearing animal print fitting to the role, and commenting on my red platform boots. Her personality just as vibrant and charismatic as you think.

Roz Ryan: I’m Roz Ryan, I’m Cake the cat. 

BNP-Aisha: Yes. 

Roz Ryan: Meow. 

BNP-Aisha: I love it. 

Roz Ryan: Okay, Boots gave me a microphone that’s on a card with a little green dot. I love it. Yeah. I love it. 

BNP-Aisha: Yes. 

Roz Ryan: That’s very cla- that’s classic. 

BNP-Aisha: Okay. Of course, I’m glad you love it. That’s classic. Uh, my name’s Aisha. I’m with

She calls me boots remarking on my red platform boots with boot covers as I stand in my stylized Clark Kent Cosplay. 

Roz Ryan: Boots. 

BNP-Aisha: Yeah, Aisha Boots. I like that. I’m with Black Nerd Problems.

Roz Ryan: All right. 

BNP-Aisha: It’s nice to meet you. 

Roz Ryan: Nice to meet you too.

BNP-Aisha: I just have a couple questions about your work in voice acting. You’re such an iconic kind of voice for Black nerds and Black people who love cartoons. Can you talk about that kind of feeling, and what it’s like to be that in the industry for people like us?

Roz Ryan: It’s such a cool thing. I stumbled on it. I was actually doing a show at Pasadena Playhouse – and the writers of Hercules came in and saw me and introduced me to Alan Menken, and that was the beginning. 

BNP-Aisha: Wow.

Roz Ryan: And then after that, it just kept going and going because I love it so much. But we’ve been doing Ca- I’ve been doing Cake since maybe 12, 13 years now, when they first did the gender swap.

BNP-Aisha: Mm. 

Roz Ryan: And we had no idea that it would be a spinoff, but we’re very happy about it. 

BNP-Aisha: Yeah. 

Roz Ryan: Very happy. 

BNP-Aisha: Can you talk about taking it from, you know, this kind of spinoff into now it has its own life? Have you brought new characterization to the character since it’s got its own? 

Roz Ryan: Yeah. We’ve been given a lot of creative freedom because it’s Fionna and Cake, and they’re the stars of the show. So we’ve been given a lot of creative freedom. What I do love about this second season is they’ve given Cake and Fionna a more personal friendship. 

BNP-Aisha: Mm. 

Roz Ryan: And I think that’s important right now too because they’re buddies. I mean, Fionna won’t let nobody do nothing to Cake. She could do something to her, but can’t nobody else do nothing to her.

BNP-Aisha: Yeah. 

Roz Ryan: And I love that. It’s like she’s my protector, and I’m hers. 

BNP-Aisha: Yeah, absolutely. 

Roz Ryan: Yeah. 

BNP-Aisha: Okay. I guess for my last question, what inspires you for the voice of Cake? ‘Cause you say she is sassy. Where does that really come from? 

Roz Ryan: They turned me loose. They, yeah, you know, when I go in the studio I generally ask, “How is the character? What do you want from the character?” They just said, “We want you,” and they turned me loose and they let me develop her. So as I said, it’s like 60% of what’s on the paper, and 40% of what I bring to it. 

BNP-Aisha: That’s perfect. Yeah. That’s just what you want. Yeah, it’s the good stuff. I love it. Well, thank you so much.

Roz Ryan: Thank you, baby. 

BNP-Aisha: A pleasure meeting you.

Roz Ryan: You too, girl … and lovely talking to you. All right. 

BNP-Aisha: You don’t have to hold that forever now. 

I said referring to the small microphone given for the interview. Roz looked at it and decided she wanted a keepsake…

Roz Ryan: Well, I’m gonna keep it just in case. Thank you.

She said jokingly as she gingerly handed the microphone back. Speaking with Roz Ryan was just as you would think her to be. Pure aunty energy, fabulous, and magnanimous.

Fionna the Human

Next, I chopped it up with Madeleine Martin the voice of Fionna! 

Madeleine Martin: Those are amazing boots.

She says remarking on Roz Ryan’s nickname and acknowledgement of the stylish boots. 

BNP-Aisha: Thank you so much. Hi, I’m Aisha. I work with Black Nerd Problems. Nice to meet you. Do you mind saying your name and what character you play?

Madeleine Martin: Yes. I’m Madeline Martin, and I play Fionna.

BNP-Aisha: Lovely to meet you. I hope you’re having a good con. So I want to ask you, as playing Fionna in kind of the contained Adventure Time, did you think it was going to spawn off into its own thing? And what is it like now being Fionna in the new [show], its own world expanded?

Madeleine Martin: You never know with acting what’s going to happen next. Somebody back in 2011 did mention we’d love to do a Fionna and Cake, but I never heard about it again. And then I did, nobody believes me, but I did have a dream during COVID that Fionna and Cake was a spinoff. And then when I heard a few months later, I did go, “Wow, how is this possible?” Yeah, it was a dream I really held onto because I wanted to get to explore the character further with Roz. And I felt like it could be this show with this great sense of struggling to find your identity and where you belong in the world.

BNP-Aisha: Yeah. And I think in terms of this season and the next seasons, they’ve really upped the game in terms of kind of intensity and those real world and supernatural things. How has it been seeing those parallels between Fionna having a real life and then wanting something bigger? Does that resonate with you personally as well?

Madeleine Martin: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because I’ve been playing this character for so long, so many of my life experiences are definitely embedded in Fionna’s character now. Being in a new relationship, living in another country, all of these things are things that I see mirrored in Fionna’s character. And I feel like, especially this season, the show is a lot about reframing your outlook on life. In the first season of the show, Fionna feels like her life is boring and then it is. And I feel like that’s such a good message in life. If you think your life is going to be boring, it definitely will be boring. You have to reframe how you look at something. But it’s a great message that the show brings.

BNP-Aisha: That’s powerful. Well, thank you so much.

Madeleine Martin: Thank you.

BNP-Aisha: It’s really great talking with you, and enjoy the rest of your time.

Meeting Madeleine was a great example of the true skill it is to find these characters and embody them for the screen. While Madeleine was very soft spoken and exuded pure kindness, Fionna is boisterous, a little messy, and headstrong. Knowing the skill level it takes to make Fionna come to life is remarkable. 

Adam the Writer, Producer

Not only are these characters brought to life through talented voice acting, the stories and production are the foundation of this interdimensional story. Adam Muto, the Executive Director and writer behind Fionna and Cake and other shows like Steven Universe, gave a little peek into how the story and lore comes to fruition. 

Adam slides over from his previous interview, looking professional and stoic. He’s ready for any question I might throw at him. 

BNP-Aisha: My first question is about the gamut of your work. You’ve worked on things like Steven Universe and Adventure Time, Fionna and Cake now, and the writing on those shows and the storylines, they always seem to be fun episodes, but then something that can be really deep and it connects through other episodes. How did you all think about connecting these storylines to these bigger ideas?

Adam Muto: Right. Well, those shows you mentioned specifically, Steven Universe, has so much lore and so much discussion involved in all those episodes. So I worked on two episodes and both of those, I think I was more of a guest. So I didn’t have to know the entire sweep of the history of a gem war and how all these things related, but I could sort of find a pocket in it. And then the rest, I kind of relied on the writers of those shows to point out where it was kind of straying too far away. And that’s one approach. 

And part of it is that was a multi-season show, and it was just so the scale of it kind of grew exponentially over the time. I mean, by design. But our shows are kind of designed to be one season and feel discreet and feel like there is an ending. And so to that end, we do outline it pretty thoroughly before we’ve even boarded a single thing. 

So I think that’s partially how we kind of keep it under wraps without spiraling or going on too many tangents that we don’t have time for. So yeah, I think it’s just our approach is a lot different than when it was 11 minutes where we had a certain number of episodes to fill in a season, and it was just kind of off to the races and you could have some light continuity, But by the time you were working on the last episode, the first episode was already delivered. So it’s like you couldn’t really link it in the same way.

BNP-Aisha: Wow. Super creative.

Adam Muto: Yeah. Yeah. You just kind of find what you had established and react to that more than set out a roadmap completely ahead of time. 

BNP-Aisha: So my last question is Fionna and Cake takes things to a more intense level than Adventure Time kind of ever had. Can you talk about that kind of switch in the direction of the show?

Adam Muto: Does it? I think part of it is the format because a lot of things would play a lot faster in 11. So we wouldn’t really have time to sit on a lot of moments, which is kind of both a gift and a limitation of the original series and just the 11 minutes in general. Because if you talk to people who work on anime shows, they always kind of want to look for those moments where you can breathe and sort of have a character just going through something and thinking on screen. And usually within 11, we had to just keep things moving. And I think there is an opportunity to sort of have a character sort of emoting within. It’s still a 2D drawing and you still want to not go completely inert on screen. So there is a challenge to that too. So I think just being able to inhabit those feelings for longer might lend it a little bit more weight than necessary. But I also think the original series did have really intense moments. So it’s more just how long you can stay in that sort of mood is a lot different in a 22 than in 11. 

BNP-Aisha: Well, thank you so much. That’s so much insight. I love it. It was great meeting you. 

Adam Muto: It was great meeting you. Thank you. 

Huntress the Wizard

Finally, last but not least, I chatted with Ashly Burch voicing the fun and fierce warrior Huntress, who also happened to be a writer on the original Adventure Time series. 

BNP-Aisha: So you mentioned, I heard in an interview just now that you wrote on Adventure Time before. What was that like and did you think you were going to make that jump into the cast while you were writing?

Ashly Burch: I actually started as a voice actor on the show before I became a writer. So yeah, it was interesting. I just sort of ping ponged back and forth. Yeah, I originally was in Adventure Time. I played Breezy the Bee. So that’s kind of how I met the crew. And I met Kent Osborne, who was the voice director and the head writer of Adventure Time. And Penn Ward was leaving and he was like, “We need another writer. Do you want to come and test?” So I came in and I think it was like a two-week timeframe where I was in the writer’s room and I pitched some stories and then they were like, “We like you. Come on in.” So then I was an official writer and I got to write for all my favorite characters and it was very exciting. So yeah, it’s been a minute since I’ve gotten to write for Adventure Time. So getting to come back as Hunters Wizard is, it’s an honor, honestly, because I loved the show before I voiced it, before I wrote for it. I’ve always been a fan. So yeah, it feels really special to get to play this role.

BNP-Aisha: And kind of on that same tip, the evolution of Adventure Time has always been at first, oh, this fun kid thing, a kid with a dog. And then also now we have Fionna and Cake, like a girl with her cat. But it really delves into some deeper issues that go on just with relationships, identity, mental health, all those things. How has it been seeing the evolution of the story? Because I really feel like Fionna and Cake is even more intense than Adventure Time.

Ashly Burch: Yeah. To me, it honestly feels like a natural progression because as you said, Adventure Time started as like six to 11. We’re having a great time. We’re going on adventures. And then I feel like as the show aged with its audience, it got more and more existential. And I remember watching some of the episodes before I worked on it and I was like, “They’re doing this in a kid show? This is wild.” Really impressed. So I think that DNA has always kind of been an Adventure Time of like, let’s ask big questions or look at deep things and get existential. And so I think it’s cool to just bring it into Fionna and Cake where it really is in the DNA and fabric of the show because it’s a more adult show. So it’s like we can go there. And with Huntress Wizard, I feel like that’s kind of a big part of her storyline this season is kind of grappling with some larger relational, existential questions, which is really cool.

BNP-Aisha: Right. And my last question, because you have to go, could you talk a little about the craft of acting? How do you come up with this character voice?

Ashly Burch: So the big thing for me is what I kind of learned when I started voice acting was it’s less about the voice and more about who is this person. So it’s really like when you start to delve into who this character is, the voice kind of, for me at least, sort of reveals itself to you more. I think before I started voice acting, I was like, oh, you just need to be able to do a bunch of different pitches and different wacky characters. And it really does end up being like, who is this person? What do they want? What are they struggling with? And then that helps to inform what voice ends up coming out. So Huntress Wizard is really driven, pretty intense, guarded. And so that really informed how she came out of me and how I played her.

BNP-Aisha: Beautiful. Thank you so much.

Ashly Burch: Thank you. Yeah, nice to meet you.

BNP-Aisha: Yeah, thanks a lot. 

Actors and creators agree that Adventure Time is made up of algebraic lore that rivals the multiverses we’ve seen in many stories today. The universe is ever expanding with Adventure Time Side Quests and all of the existing programs out there in the Adventure Time extended universe. We’ll be watching these and so many more characters for many more years to come. 

Check out Fionna and Cake and all Adventure Time shows on HBO Max. 

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