Skibidi Toilet, the massively popular YouTube series featuring singing heads popping out of toilet bowls, is being developed into a TV and film franchise by Transformers director Michael Bay, and former Paramount president Adam Goodman.
On February 7, 2023, “Skibidi toilet” was uploaded to YouTube by Alexey Gerasimov. The 11-second video of a manically animated human head singing the Biser King lyric quickly racked up millions of views, leading to a full series that now has over 76 episodes, telling a strange tale of evil toilet men and robotic TV people fighting a war. The videos are built using Valve’s Source Filmmaker tool and feature a lot of Half-Life 2 assets. As of July 2024, the entire series on YouTube has over 775 million views, making it one of the most popular things on the site. And so, as you might expect, Hollywood has come a-knocking.
As reported by Variety on July 24, Bay and Goodman are currently in talks with the creator behind Skibidi Toilet, and have plans to make a movie and TV show based on the viral series.
“We are absolutely in talks right now, both on the television side and the earliest conversations right now on the film side,” Goodman told Variety, “[Gerasimov] is building something that could be the next ‘Transformers’ or could be a Marvel universe.”
Goodman and Bay’s independent studio, Invisible Narratives, is already working with the creator on a line of physical merchandise and toys based on Skibidi Toilet. At the time, nobody knew that there was more to the deal beyond some toys and collectibles. But Goodman told Variety that Bay is working closely with the creator of Skibidi Toilet on the franchise’s future.
“I will say that Michael….has been working very closely with Alexey to really professionalize the kind of back engine of this, to make sure, if we ever decide to go film or television, that this is kind of lifted beyond just the resources that creators have on the internet,” explained Goodman.
No specific streaming or studio partners were shared, but Goodman did say they are thinking about doing a hybrid animated/live-action version of Skibidi Toilet, which the former Paramount prez said would stylistically compare to John Wick or District 9.
“If we find a partner in this that really believes there’s opportunity for this to grow and to really see the storytelling grow and for this to be where we hope this can be, then film and TV seems like a natural extension for us,” Goodman told Variety.
So you uh… can look forward to Ryan Reynolds, Jack Black, or The Rock appearing in a Skibidi Toilet movie or TV show on Amazon or Netflix one day. That’s something we get to experience.
.
