The 2010s rang in anew era of Cartoon Network classicsstarting withAdventure Time. Just one year after that show premiered, Cartoon Network launchedThe Amazing World of Gumball, a mixed-media animated sitcom about the whacky misadventures of an anthropomorphic cat named Gumball. Over its six seasons, the show from creator Ben Bocquelet was lauded by fans and critics alike for its imagination, silliness, and heart.
The show speaks to kids and adults, especially those who grew up in an era of burgeoning creativity on YouTube. Nowhere is this more evident in the show than in the Season 5 episode “The Puppets,” a collaboration with the creative team behind the disturbing web seriesDon’t Hug Me I’m Scared. Together, the collaborative team also released a series of mixed-media web shorts calledWaiting for Gumball.
Though the show ended with its sixth season in 2019, fans have held out hope for a continuation. They didn’t have to wait long beforeCartoon Network announced a TV movieand spinoff show, but the two continuations seemed doomed following the Warner Brothers/Discovery merger.
However, the projects were given new life: at the 2023 Annecy Film Festival, the new series was confirmed to be currently in production. As of writing, it’s unclear if this spinoff will pick up where the originalGumballleft off, but what is clear is that audiences will soon get to revisit their favorite characters in thisAmazing World.
Gumball Watterson
Gumball, the mischievous blue cat, is the protagonist ofThe Amazing World of Gumball. Born Zachary Tristopher Watterson, the sarcastic preteen is brash and often quite dumb. Usually, this is because of his massively inflated ego or his penchant for getting distracted. And yet, Gumball proves himself quite intelligent over the show’s six seasons, just perhaps not in the way his teachers might prefer.
As tends to happen when children voice animated characters, those children grow up, and the show must decide: age up the character to match the voice or replace them.Gumballgoes for the latter. In the Season 3 premiere “The Kids,” Gumball and his brother Darwin actually hit puberty. Just as they’re coming to grips with growing up, though, the boys revert to their colorful, childlike selves. Their voices revert as well, with Gumball’s switching from original voice actorLogan GrovetoJacob Hopkins.
Hopkins would hold the role for the next two and a half seasons. The Season 5 episode “The Copycats” (maybe one of theshow’s best episodes) ends with Gumball and Darwin literally glitching, the former voice actor replaced byNicholas Cantufor the rest of Season 5 and all of Season 6.
For the post-series specialThe Gumball Chronicles, Gumball is voiced byDuke Cutler, but it’s unclear if the actor is returning for the impending film and spinoff.
Darwin Watterson
Accompanying Gumball on his cavalcade of misadventures is his adopted brother Darwin, a kind-hearted and naive goldfish. Before Darwin became a full-fledged Watterson, he actually started out as a family pet. In the Season 4 two-part episode “The Origins,” we see a four-year-old Gumball stressing out his mom to no end. After several failed attempts at keeping a regular goldfish alive, a special one comes into their lives.
Gumball and Darwin quicklyestablish a brotherly bond, but things go awry when the fish is accidentally flushed out to sea. Thanks to his connection with his new brother, though, Darwin evolves and makes it back home to be welcomed as a member of the Watterson family.
Related:The Best Cartoon Network Characters, Ranked
Like Gumball, Darwin has been voiced by several different actors over the course of the show, starting withKwesi Boakyrein the first three seasons. In Season 3, Darwin’s voice changed to that ofTerrell Ransom Jr., who voiced the fish until partway through Season 5. His third voice actor isDonielle T. Hansley Jr., who was replaced byChristian J. Simonin the Season 6 episode “The Anybody” after Darwin clears his throat.
Anais Watterson
Rounding out the Watterson kids is baby sister Anais, voiced byKyla Rae Kowalewski. Unlike her brothers, Anais’ voice actor is consistent throughout the series and gradually changes as Kowalewski grows up.
The little pink bunny is a classic know-it-all sister but with the intelligence to back it up. Despite being only four years old, Anais already attends Elmore Junior High with her brothers and is even in the grade level above them by Season 4. As cunning as she is intelligent, Anais often forms complex plans to get her and her family out of trouble.
This baby sister has a bit of a mean streak, too, often talking down to her brothers and even flying into a violent rage when things don’t go her way. And while Anais is usually hyper-intelligent beyond her years, she still has some childish tendencies to match her age. Most notably, this comes out in her love for theDaisy the Donkey Showand the great care she takes with her matching Daisy plushy.
Richard Watterson
Watterson patriarch Richard, another pink bunny like Anais, is oftentimes just as if not more childish than his three children. Voiced byDan Russell, Richard is what happens if you take thestereotypical lazy sitcom dadand amped it up to 11. He’s gullible, even downright stupid, and relies on his wife to be both the main provider and caretaker of the family.
That said, Richard is a genuine, loving father who typically acts with the best of intentions. If he doesn’t, there’s a good chance food is involved: Richard is always hungry and instinctively runs toward whatever food is in sight. His favorite is sausages, but this larger-than-life rabbit will eat just about anything.
Despite his shortcomings, Richard occasionally has his moments of accidental genius, sharing sound, philosophical advice on life and friendship to his wife and kids. He’s also fluent in Spanish as revealed in the Season 2 episode “The Remote,” likely so he can watch his favorite soap opera,La Casa De Las Lagrimas.
Nicole Watterson
Mom Nicole Watterson, voiced byTeresa Gallagher, is the glue that keeps her family together. Because of the many different hats she wears to keep food on her family’s table, Nicole is almost constantly under stress. But that started long before Nicole became a mother.
Born Doctor Nicole Senicourt, her strict parents’ expectations of perfection left the blue cat with heaps of anxiety and a strong desire to do things differently with her kids. That, though, is pretty hard with the oft-irresponsible Watterson clan, andNicole can get pretty scarywhen it comes to keeping her kids (and husband) in line.
But the beleaguered mother still loves her family to no end, sometimes to her detriment. One example comes in the season one episode “The Ape:” after Gumball and Darwin’s teacher, Miss Simian, calls the Wattersons “losers,” Nicole takes her family along to ram the baboon’s car off the freeway.
Nicole is also a martial arts master, having trained since childhood. In Season 4’s “The Fury,” it’s shown that she and former best friend Yuki Yoshida were fighting prodigies; their friendship fell apart after Nicole bested Yuki in a tournament, and the episode shows their epic, anime-inspired rematch.
Though he becomes the villain ofThe Amazing World of Gumballby its end, Rob didn’t start that way. Instead, this cyclopic preteen was a simple background character who was often forgotten by his classmates. But by the beginning of Season 3, Rob seemingly disappears from the show.
That is, until the late-season episode “The Nobody.” In it, it’s revealed that Rob was sucked into the Void, the place where Elmore’s “mistakes” are sent to die. Blaming Gumball and Darwin for not rescuing him from the Void, Rob takes up the boys’ suggestion that he become their arch-nemesis.
In Rob’s early appearances, he’s voiced byCharles Phillip, but when he adopts his villainous persona in “The Nemesis,” he is voiced by famed character actorDavid Warner. Up until the Season 4 finale, Rob speaks in the British actor’s classically villainous tones, after which he reverts back to Phillip.
Penny Fitzgerald
Of all the students at Elmore Junior High, perhaps none is more important to Gumball than his crush, and later girlfriend, Penny. The sweet, sensitive peanut is voiced by the same actress as Nicole,Teresa Gallagher. In fact, Gallagher voices twelve different characters inGumball.
Up until the Season 3 episode, “The Shell,” Penny is an antlered peanut with arms and legs. After two and a half seasons of Penny and Gumball struggling to express their feelings to one another, Gumball is finally forced to make his move when Penny breaks out of her shell and reveals her true form: ayellow, shapeshifting fairy.
Penny’s ability is powered by her emotions, so when she thinks Gumball doesn’t like her true form, she transforms into a monster. The episode ends as Gumball confesses his feelings for Penny and the two kiss, cementing them as a couple for the rest of the series.
Carrie Krueger
The resident emo of Elmore Junior High is the ghost, Carrie, voiced byJessica McDonald. Befitting of her undead nature, Carrie is a stereotypical emo girl who seems to enjoy her own misery. Of course, Carrie also has a softer side that comes out on occasion, such as in “The Pony” when she ends up enjoying aMy Little Pony-esque movie.
Related:The Top 25 Cartoon Network TV Shows of All Time
Because she’s a ghost, Carrie can possess others, something she takes advantage of to experience things like eating. For the first five seasons ofGumballCarrie has a crush on Darwin, which he reciprocates, but the two don’t become a couple until Season 5’s “The Matchmaker.” Maybe the most surprising thing about Carrie is that she wasn’t a mortal in a previous life, but instead, she was simply born a ghost.
Elmore Junior High School counselor Steven Small was first voiced byLewis MacLeod, who was replaced in Season 2 byAdam Long. Mr. Small is a typical new-age hippie, always hopping on to the latest woo-woo fads to solve not just his, but his students’ problems.
Befitting of his outsider perspective, Mr. Small is an avid conspiracy theorist, believing, among other things, that redheads are the descendants of an alien race. Because of this, it’s Mr. Small who tells Gumball and Darwin about the Void, eventually taking them there while he searches for his missing van, Janice.
Although Mr. Small looks similar to cloud characters like the Yoshidas, it’s revealed in Season 3’s “The Lie” that he’s more primate-looking under all that fluff.
Sarah G. Lato
Gumballfeatures a lot offourth-wall-breaking moments, and classmate Sarah is a driving force behind several of them. The ice cream cone, also voiced byJessica McDonald, is a stereotypical TV nerd obsessed with fan-fiction and comic books, but her biggest obsession is Gumball and Darwin.
In Season 3’s “The Fan,” Sarah reveals that she transferred to Elmore Junior High just to be closer to the boys. The three work out the stalker situation, but that doesn’t keep Sarah from incorporating her new classmates into her own stories. In “The Comic,” for instance, Sarah creates a superhero version of Gumball called LaserHeart.
Another episode, “The Shippening,” gives Sarah a magical notebook that makes her fan fiction come to life. Unfortunately for them, these stories are about the people of Elmore, especially the Watterson brothers.
