2025 is here, and we’re back in action here at Studio Countdown. This post is one of our biggest announcements yet (and our first major announcement this year), so let’s get right into it!

It’s official - CTC Season 1 is coming

We’ve been working on our debut animated series Countdown to Countdown for over a year now, and we’re super excited to confirm that the first ever season of CTC is set to premiere next year! Season 1 will be released in 3 acts, starting with Act 1 close to the end of 2026. Episodes will be released in parallel on YouTube and on Studio Countdown All Access (both on our website and on Patreon). More information on Act 2 and Act 3 will become available as production moves forward. We know it’s a bit of a wait, but we want to take our time to do our best work.

Oh, and while you’re waiting, we might drop a few surprise sneak peeks and extras throughout 2025 - including a special collaboration that we’ve been contractually obliged to keep our mouths shut about for several months now.

Growing our studio

Over the past few months, Studio Countdown has grown from a small brand for a small animation project to a full-service animation studio working on both original projects and commercial work. We think it’s great that we’ve managed to expand so quickly, but we also wanted to make sure that our new projects wouldn’t slow down CTC or distract us from our original goals.

Because of this, we now operate as multiple teams. The Countdown to Countdown series team is staying the same, and there is some overlap - but new team members are joining us for our other projects. Teams are flexible, so crew members can switch between projects whenever they want to bring in new expertise. That way, we can keep learning from our own projects without bogging down one group of people too much.

Introducing SECTOR ZERO

Now that you know we have teams for things other than CTC, you might be wondering what these “other things” are. Well, time to stop wondering (for now). Our latest project is SECTOR ZERO, a sci-fi universe created by up-and-coming artist Ben O’Connell. SECTOR ZERO has been in the works for almost 10 years now, and we’re so excited to bring Ben’s creative vision to life. We can’t really tell you much more than that without spreading spoilers, so feel free to join the SECTOR ZERO newsletter at sectorzero.cntdwn.xyz to stay up to date.

New SECTOR ZERO content is in the works - and it’ll be coming to YouTube as well as Studio Countdown All Access. Once again, the SECTOR ZERO team is separate from the Countdown to Countdown team, so these projects won’t slow each other down.

Yes, we’re still working on MAINSTAGE

We’ve been quite busy - and since MAINSTAGE is an experimental project, we didn’t have much time to work on it. MAINSTAGE is on hold (and will likely continue to be on hold until May), but it hasn’t been forgotten! Rest assured you’ll see our characters having fun and not suffering. Eventually.

Rapid-fire Q&As

It’s time for some quick questions and answers that we couldn’t fit into other parts of this article!

Question 1: Are you sure SECTOR ZERO won’t slow down CTC?

Yes. While there is a small amount of overlap between teams and some crew members are rotating between projects, we haven’t noticed any difference in the efficiency of work for CTC.

Question 2: You said you’re working on new projects, and your first project is an adaptation of Velinxi’s webcomic Countdown to Countdown… Does this mean we’re getting a Daughter of a Thousand Faces show next?

Unfortunately not - at least not at the moment. Our biggest project is still adapting CTC into an animated series, and since the DOTF art style is similar to that of CTC, we would probably need to have the two teams overlap quite heavily to be as efficient as possible. The problem with this is that it could bottleneck CTC’s production, which would be problematic. If we ever work on a DOTF series, it’ll probably be after CTC ends.

Question 3: What about Stars With You?

Stars With You is on hold at Studio Countdown while Flersora (the original creator of Stars With You) takes time both to work on the story and for herself. We’re excited to continue working on Stars With You in the future, but we understand that this project will take more time. Artists are people too, so please don’t send us excessive messages regarding release dates or ETAs for Stars With You.

Question 4: Can Studio Countdown work on my project?

For commissions (including subcontract work) and partnerships, please reach out to our sales team. If you’re looking to pitch a series or story idea, please note that we’re not currently accepting unsolicited pitches. We’re hoping to accept pitches in the future, but we can’t give any set dates on when that will be.

That’s a wrap for today’s article - thanks for reading. If you’re looking for more news and updates, you can join the Studio Countdown Discord community for free or get Studio Countdown All Access to support our work while getting exclusive perks!