Sometimes saying goodbye to a world doesn’t necessarily mean we have seen the last of it.
Especially when that world is Amphibia.
Years after Anne Boonchuy’s adventure came to an end, the Plantars are preparing to embark on a journey of their own in “Amphibia: Strange Voyage,” a new graphic novel series from “Amphibia” creator Matt Braly and illustrator Beatrice Bovo.
And apparently saving Amphibia from the Core wasn’t the end of the mysteries waiting beyond Wartwood.
“Strange Voyage” picks up years after Anne saved Amphibia and returned to Earth, shifting the focus back to the frog family that helped make her strange new world feel like home. This time, the Plantars are setting sail in search of an entirely new continent, opening the door to parts of Amphibia that even longtime fans of the Disney animated series have never had the opportunity to explore.
Naturally, this being the Plantars, the voyage doesn’t exactly go according to plan.
When their journey takes a dangerous turn, the family instead finds itself arriving on a mysterious island filled with more secrets than anyone expected. That gives the new series an interesting opportunity to expand Amphibia without simply trying to recreate Anne’s original adventure. The Core has been defeated, Anne has gone home and that chapter of the story has reached its conclusion, but the world she left behind is still enormous.
Who knows what else is out there?
That question feels especially fitting for a series like “Amphibia.” So much of the original show was built around exploration and discovery as Anne gradually ventured beyond Wartwood and learned how much bigger—and more complicated—Amphibia really was. Sending the Plantars toward an undiscovered continent gets to recapture some of that sense of adventure while putting familiar characters in the position of discovering the unknown themselves.
It also means fans aren’t simply revisiting places and stories they already know. A mysterious island, an unexplored continent and the passage of several years give Braly plenty of room to introduce new creatures, locations and mysteries while showing how Amphibia and the Plantars have continued to change since we last saw them.
For longtime fans, that makes “Strange Voyage” a chance to return to a world that received a genuine ending without undoing what made that ending matter. For newcomers, the new journey is being positioned as a frog-filled fantasy adventure that can also stand as an entry point into the wonderfully strange world Braly created.
Because Anne’s story may have taken her back to Earth.
The Plantars, however, still have an entire world left to explore.
“Amphibia: Strange Voyage” Issue #1 is written by Matt Braly and illustrated by Beatrice Bovo.