If all the new holiday rom coms hitting various streaming services just aren’t cutting it for you this year, HBO Max might have just what you’re looking for. For those of you a bit too cynical for mistletoe-kisses, HBO is bringing putting the “naughty” in “naughty-or-nice” with an eight-episode Christmas series titled Santa Inc. created by the same team behind Sausage Party — a fact which becomes abundantly clearly mere moments into it’s highly NSFW trailer.
Complete with flashing elves, a whole lot of f-bombs and multiple peeing contests, HBO’s Santa Inc. is a not-so-wholesome holiday series modeled after the stop-animation Christmas specials we grew up watching as kids. In it, Seth Rogen plays the “biggest name in ‘snow’ business,” Santa Claus, while Sarah Silverman portrays the hard-working elf Candy Smalls, whose greatest ambition is to become Santa’s first female successor and thus end the line of white, male Santa Clauses. How does Candy intend to do this? Well, based on the trailer, by learning how to “bro out” and “shoot the s—, do shots,” and, somehow, “shoot shots of s—” with Santa and the rest of his merry men. In addition to Silverman and Rogen, Leslie Grossman, Gabourey Sidibe, Craig Robinson, Nicholas Braun, Maria Bamford, and Joel Kim Booster are all set to star in Santa Inc.
The series was both written and created by Shrill and Parks and Recreation producer Alexandra Rushfield, with Silverman, Rogen, Amy Zvi, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Joshua Fagen, Rosa Tran, Seth Green, John Harvatine IV, Matthew Senreich, Eric Towner, and Chris Waters all helping with production. Harry Chaskin directed all eight episodes of the adult-animated series, which premieres exclusively on HBO Max on December 2.