Playground Productions reveals new show is in production at its SDCC 2026 panel, sharing the voice cast, which also includes Christopher Mintz-Plasse, first look images and a sizzle reel - trailer.
Playground Productions just revealed Backyard Sports: The Animated Series at its Comic-Con panel in San Diego, announcing a voice cast led by Tiffany Haddish, Donald Faison and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, along with first-look images and a sizzle reel - trailer.
The show is based on Backyard Baseball, a full-scale revamp of the 2D arcade-style classic that has attracted kids and adults since 1997. The newly rebooted game launched July 9 on Steam for Mac and PC, with Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation versions arriving soon. No timetable for the series was shared.
The cast features Haddish as Kiesha Phillips, Faison as Dante Robinson, Mintz-Plasse as Dmitri Petrovich, Arturo Castro as Pablo Sanchez, Utkarsh Ambudkar as Achmed Khan, Deborah Baker Jr. as Kimmy Eckman, Michael Vlamis as Tony Delvecchio, Ashleigh Crystal Hairston as Sunny Day, Will Neff as Mr. Clanky, Vincent Tong as Kenny Kawaguchi, Joey Rudman as Marky Dubois and Lindsay Barnett as Vinnie.
Playground Productions Chief Product Officer Chris Waters will serve as showrunner. Juston Gordon-Montgomery is supervising director, while Adam Aseraf and Sarah Nevada Smith will serve as head writers and co-executive producers. The series is produced by Playground CEO Lindsay Barnett and Waters, along with Ari Pinchot and Stuart Avi Savitsky, with animation services by Lighthouse Studios. The production will include 20 episodes, each running about 11 minutes.
“I am beyond thrilled to announce our series today,” Barnett said. “The ‘Backyard Sports’ characters have inspired imaginations for generations, and their stories have always felt bigger than the game itself. As Backyard Baseball expands with the new game on Steam and soon consoles, bringing these characters into new forms of storytelling feels like a natural extension of the Backyard universe.”
The series marks the beginning of what Playground Productions calls the Backyardiverse, a connected world where sports, storytelling and culture come together. According to the company, the all-new Backyard Baseball video game is not simply a throwback, but the kickoff to a new era of “Backyard Sports.”
Playground Productions is a children’s and family company focused on film, television, digital media and video games. Founder Lindsay Barnett spent close to a decade teaching second grade in a Chicago Public School. The company’s content aims to inspire a love of play by leveraging technology, talent and character IP to create content that celebrates the spirit of play, meets children where they are developmentally and allows kids to be kids.
“Backyard Sports” is a nostalgic family brand built around the feeling of the 1990s. The franchise features more than 30 diverse characters and centers on everyday neighborhood children playing sports together, with boys and girls sharing the same athletic abilities. The games’ charm came in large part from the Backyard kids embodying the quirks and humor of children’s little league, little dribblers and pee wee football.
Source: Playground Productions
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
