Rocko’s Modern Life and Invader Zim movies coming to Netflix: Report

After months of silence, Bob Bakish, CEO and President of Viacom, has revealed the fates of Static Cling and Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus during a conference call.

Fans worried about the fates of the upcoming Invader Zim and Rocko’s Modern Life revival films can finally breathe easy today. According to the blog NickALive!, Bob Bakish confirmed they had sold “the rights to the network’s upcoming made-for-TV movies, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling and Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus, to Netflix.”

They source their information from Viacom’s Q2 2019 Viacom Inc Earnings Conference Call. For those unaware, Viacom is the parent company of Nickelodeon. Pop Geeks also confirmed the news.

This news would make a lot of sense considering the many different projects the two companies have shared as of late. Examples include the upcoming live-action adaptation series of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is set to air on Netflix, and Pinky Malinky, which is a show animated by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and distributed by Netflix.

As of the writing of this article. Nickelodeon has yet to release an official press release on this matter and no dates have been given for when either film will be released. That said, we do have a teaser trailer for Enter The Florpus and a short preview of Static Cling, both of which can be viewed on Nickelodeon’s Official YouTube channel.

Previously Nickelodeon released a teaser trailer for Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus at San Diego Comic-Con last year and at the panel, A.V. Club reported the plot as “ZIM discovers his almighty leaders have no intention of coming to Earth and he loses confidence in his own amazingness for the first time in his amazing life, which is the big break his human nemesis Dib has been waiting for. At some point, GIR rides a tiny donkey, and that’s all anyone should really care about.”

The teaser also shares vast similarities from the first issue of the Invader Zim comic published by Oni Press. Like in this first issue, the teaser shows a very overweight and unclean Dib being confronted by his hazmat suite wearing sister Gaz. In the comic, Dib became like this due to Zim disappearing for an extended period of time causing Dib to refuse to leave his room as he watched his monitors day and night for any signs of Zim.

This turned out to be exactly what Zim wanted as he was hiding in the toilet fully anticipating that Dib would become so lethargic he would be unable to combat him. Of course in the comics, Zim doesn’t hold this advantage over Dib for very long.

While it seems unlikely the movie will follow the comic beat for beat, it definitely shares some similar aspects. Also, Zim’s absent from media for so long being explained in-universe as being due to him hiding in a toilet is just about as on brand for the character as possible.

Similarly, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling will also address the reason for Rocko’s disappearance as being due to him, Heffer and Filburt being stuck in space since 1996. Now back on earth in the present day, Rocko will find he’s not so keen on all the technological advances that dominate our current society. Heffer and Filburt, on the other hand, appear to love it, which may cause a rift between the longtime friends.

Both films will also see the return of the majority of the original voice cast as well as the original series creators Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim) and Joe Murray (Rocko’s Modern Life). These revivals come on the heels of Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie which aired in 2017 and was also a movie revival of a much older Nickelodeon show. Unlike Zim and Rocko though, The Jungle Movie premiered on Nickelodeon and even won an Emmy.