Hero Force

Hero Force is an American animated superhero television series created by Zachary Jordan and produced by Cartoon Network Studios, Silver Warrior Animation, and ADV Pro. It aired on Cartoon Network for three seasons between 2003 and 2006, with a television movie in 2007 titled Hero Force II that acted as the series finale. It is the show that Jordan met one of his production partners, Toby Pittman.

The show premiered on October 4, 2004 and ended on April 30, 2006. The television movie finale aired on December 28, 2007 at 9:30PM.

Development
During production of Jordan's other show, Total War, he wanted to focus on the superhero genre, as the genre was picking up steam in the animated and live action front. He sought out Nickelodeon in 2001, showing them a animatic with unknown voice actors. Nickelodeon turned it down, and so Jordan would then sought out Cartoon Network in the spring of 2002 with an animated demo trailer (produced by ADV Films and animated by a then-unknown Ufotable, with voice actors from ADV Films, who co-funded and helped produce the trailer. Cartoon Network accepted and gave Jordan a 13 episode order for the fall of 2003.

Writing
Jordan met Toby Pittman, who would become his right hand man in developing the show and most of the first season structure.

Broadcasting
The show was broadcast on Cartoon Network in the United States from 2004 to 2006, and was shown on reruns from 2006 to 2009. Reruns were later shown on Vortexx on The CW in 2014, then Boomerang from 2016 to 2018. KidsClick aired the show in 2017, before Boomerang started airing the show again in 2018. It's last airdate was January 2019.

Home Media and Streaming
ADV Films had the home media rights, and released the first and second seasons in 2006, with the third season being released in 2007. The film was also released by ADV Films in 2008 alongside a "Complete Series" set bundled with the movie. In 2009, ADV Films would be liquidated, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment would purchase the Hero Force home media rights. They would reprint the ADV Films "Complete Series" set with the movie in 2010, before releasing the series on digital storefronts in 2012. A re-release was planned for 2014, but was cancelled for unknown reasons. The re-release was then announced to be in 2016 as a limited edition re-release. This limited edition re-released would then get re-released in 2020.

The show was put on Hulu in 2013, before being taken off in 2016. It was then on Netflix from 2017 to 2020, before being on HBO Max from 2020 to 2022. It then became available on Hulu again as part of an agreement.