President Curtis

President Andre Curtis has a secret. When he's not shaking hands or signing bills, he's hunting cryptids. The commander-in-chief, voiced by Keith David with his signature gravel, first appeared on Rick and Morty as a blowhard politician. Now he leads his own Adult Swim series, a spin-off that trades intergalactic chaos for something weirder: American folklore gone feral.

Created by Dan Harmon and James Siciliano, the show premiered July 26, 2026, directly after the Rick and Morty season 9 finale. It follows Curtis and his White House misfits, Banks, a cybernetic chief of staff (Stephanie Beatriz), and Special Agent O'Doyle, a half-leprechaun bodyguard (Jim Rash), as they tackle vampires, ghost presidents, and a murderous Paul Bunyan. The tone is darkly comic, self-aware, and unafraid to get stupid. Ten episodes aired in season one, each a self-contained monster hunt with a melancholy undercurrent: Curtis sleeps on one side of his bed, divorced and lonely, compensating with vigilante bravado.

The series earned a perfect 100% Tomatometer from early reviews, though Metacritic settled at 67, calling it generally favorable. Critics praised David's performance but noted the show struggles to escape Rick and Morty's shadow. Still, Adult Swim ordered a second season before the first even aired, a vote of confidence in a president who'd rather fight Bigfoot than balance a budget. [edit]

President Curtis opens with a press conference. Andre Curtis stands at the podium, beaming. He announces that he has killed Paul Bunyan. The giant lumberjack, it turns out, was a cannibalistic monster, not a friendly folk hero. The room erupts in confusion. Curtis shrugs and walks off. This is his job now.

The series follows the 45th president of the United States as he ignores nearly all traditional presidential duties. He doesn't care about tax reform or foreign policy. He cares about the things that slip through the cracks of normal governance: interdimensional squatters in the Lincoln Bedroom, a vampire nest under the Capitol, Amelia Earhart's ghost haunting Air Force One. Each episode introduces a new cryptid, paranormal entity, or twisted historical figure that only a president with a secret armory and a death wish can handle.

Curtis's staff keeps the country running while he plays vigilante. Banks, his chief of staff, has a computer brain wired directly into the White House servers. She can hack anything, predict anything, and keep Curtis from accidentally starting a war. Special Agent O'Doyle, his Secret Service protector, is half-leprechaun, a fact that grants him supernatural luck and combat instincts. Together, the trio forms a unit that handles threats too terrestrial or politically entangled for Rick Sanchez. As co-creator James Siciliano put it, these are situations where you think, "Well...it could happen in the scope of things."

The season arcs loosely around Curtis's personal life. His ex-wife, newly elected governor of Illinois, keeps appearing in news reports, a reminder of what he lost. He still loves her. He still sleeps on his side of the bed. The monster hunts are partly a distraction, partly a desperate attempt to prove he's still a hero. The show never dwells on this, it's too busy with Abraham Lincoln's ghost and a sentient, murderous Mount Rushmore, but the sadness underneath gives the chaos weight.

Dan Harmon described Curtis as a "Lieutenant-from-Doctor Who-kind-of-character," someone who could add dimension to Rick and Morty without a spin-off. The show leans into American history and folklore, avoiding contemporary political satire in favor of something weirder. It's a show about a man who has everything and still needs to punch a monster to feel alive. The cryptids are real. The loneliness is realer. And the jokes land because they're earned.[edit]