Award-Winning Content Studio Introduces the ‘Swineverse’ with Series, Books, and Feature Film in Development

LOS ANGELES, CA — October 15, 2025 — Independent studio Wonkybot Entertainment, best known for its award-winning, cinematic audio hits like Tara Tremendous and teen thriller Origins Unknown, has officially expanded into animation with the launch of its new division, Wonkybot Animation.

The division’s debut project, The Swines — a dysfunctional, character-driven comedy set in a world of anthropomorphic pigs — marks the studio’s first adult animated series and the beginning of an ambitious new transmedia universe known as the Swineverse.

Premiering November 19 on YouTube, the six 11-minute episodes represent Wonkybot’s next major evolution: an in-house production built around a human-first, tech-enhanced creative philosophy that merges the company’s storytelling DNA with cutting-edge creative tools.

The official key art and teaser trailer are now live on the newly relaunched Wonkybot.com site and The Swines YouTube channel, with the full-length trailer dropping next Wednesday. Companion books will follow this winter, with a Swines animated feature film already in development for 2026.

Created, written, and directed by award-winning writer/producer and Wonkybot co-founder Stewart St John, The Swines is a serialized, soap-style comedy set in the fictional town of Oinkersfield — a world entirely inhabited by anthropomorphic pigs — and centers on a middle-class hillbilly family living, loving and feuding on Hog Heaven Ranch.

Once meant as a retirement haven for Jack — a flag-waving ex-Swine Corps vet — and his wife June — a conspiratorial free spirit known for burning crop circles in hopes the aliens return — Hog Heaven has instead become ground zero for family chaos. When eldest son Sebastian abandons Hoggywood and returns to claim the 10,000 acres left to him by his grandmother — land that overlaps the family ranch — long-buried tensions erupt, pulling the entire clan into a multigenerational stew of squabbles, schemes, and pigheaded drama.

The series is loosely inspired by St John’s own life growing up in a large, eccentric, and diverse family — Black, White, gay, straight — where love outweighed differences and humor was the glue. “My mother always called our household ‘God’s favorite sitcom,’” says St John. “The Swines is my way of channeling that chaos and comedy into a world of snouts and pigheaded drama. It’s semi-autobiographical, wrapped in satire — and at its core, it’s about how laughter can hold even the messiest families together.”

The push into animation represents a major milestone for Wonkybot, founded in 2016 as an incubator for St John’s ever-growing library of original characters and universes. The company first proved the power of universe-building with the launch of the ‘Tremendous Universe’, beginning with the hit podcast Tara Tremendous — which shot to #1 on Apple Podcasts, attracted millions of downloads worldwide, and is now in development as a live-action feature film shooting in Australia in 2026.

Now, with The Swines, Wonkybot expands into animation with the same creative DNA: original characters, bold storytelling, and a blend of satire and heart.

To help accelerate the animation process, Wonkybot draws on its proprietary creative archive — decades of sketches, characters, and designs created by St John and his team – using advanced tools to bring its worlds to life faster and more efficiently while ensuring they remain distinctly its own. This approach not only sidesteps potential intellectual property concerns but also enables the studio to produce animation entirely from its own material — without waiting for someone else’s greenlight.

“As a fully self-financed mini-studio, Wonkybot represents the future of what’s possible when creative heart and soul meets the power of technology,” says St John. “That approach lets us stay independent, form strategic partnerships, and license our content on our own terms.”

“As art director, I oversee and shape every frame,” adds Michael Plahuta, Wonkybot co-founder. “There’s no magic button that makes a show. It’s talent and vision, combined with cutting-edge tools, that bring something like The Swines to life. That process allows our small studio to deliver at the level of a major production – without sacrificing quality or creative control.”

That DIY ethos runs through every part of the pipeline. Unlike most small shops, Wonkybot keeps all production in-house — from scripts and voice direction to sound design and mixing. The result: the polish of a studio production delivered entirely on their own terms.

With The Swines leading the rollout, Wonkybot is preparing a slate of companion projects expanding the Swineverse, including the satirical self-help book Lipstick On A Pig: How A Stuck-Up Attitude Can Manifest Your Best Life (October 2025), written in-character by Annie Greyhog (with St John), and The Swines: The Official Guide to Oinkersfield’s Most Outrageous Family (Spring 2026). A line of merchandise will roll out through the company’s online store — from T-shirts and mugs to calendars — featuring snouts, family quotes, and plenty of pigheaded hilarity.

“We see this short-form YouTube rollout as a deliberate first step — the same way we introduced Tara Tremendous as an audio series before it grew into a larger universe,” says Todd Fisher, co-founder and executive producer. “It lets us test the audience, build directly with fans, and keep complete creative freedom. If a streamer or network wants to expand the IP, the door is open.”

About Wonkybot

Founded in 2016 by writer/producer/director Stewart St John, producer Todd Fisher, and artist/composer Michael Plahuta, Wonkybot Entertainment is an independent studio dedicated to creating bold, original, character-driven universes across animation, TV, film, publishing, and music. Known for award-winning, cinematic audio series like Tara Tremendous, Spooky Troop, and the Webby-honored Origins Unknown, Wonkybot has produced hundreds of episodes downloaded millions of times worldwide. With The Swines marking its first adult animated comedy, Wonkybot continues to expand its library of wholly owned IP — blending heart, humor, and cutting-edge tools to deliver stories directly to fans while keeping creative control in-house. For more, visit wonkybot.com.