The Series

Phantom 2040 takes the classic comic strip character created by Lee Falk in 1936 and places him into a futuristic world of conspiracy, political drama and the possible end of humanity.

Debuting in 1994, the series was conceived to be more "intelligent" than regular Saturday morning cartoon series, dealing with political and environmental issues as well as existential questions of humanity.

Although the series only lasted 35 episodes (about a series and a half), it received rave reviews. The series also had a lasting impact on the world on animation due to the casting of accomplished dramatic actors in character voice roles. This achieved a new level of maturity and complexity for vocal performances that set the standard for all TV animation that followed.

Development

The show was developed for television by executive producer David J. Corbett and executive story editors Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. In addition to story-editing both seasons, the Reeves-Stevens devised the show's writers' bible and scripted numerous episodes, including the two-part pilot Generation Unto Generation. Other key writers on the show included Brynne Chandler and Michael Reaves.

Character design was handled by Peter Chung, the creator of the successful AEon Flux animated series. The characters in both series have Chung’s signature “skinny” design, although those in AEon Flux are even more exaggerated.

Plot

It is the year 2040, all environmental disasters and the economic Resource Wars from the early 21st century have decimated the fragile ecosystem balance of an Earth once teeming with life. Everywhere, the privileged and wealthy continue to thrive in expensive real estate developments that tower above the suffering masses. The victims of Earth's misfortune have been forced to subsist on scavenged refuse from the past on the mangled streets of forlorn city-states.

In Metropia (once known as New York City), the largest and most powerful of the city-states, the powerful robotics manufacturing corporation Maximum Inc. has slowly shaped a cold, steely urban centre, consisting of huge, residential towers intertwined with Tube Train tunnels. Maximum's robotic BIOTS (Biological Optical Transputer System) have replaced enormous amounts of human labour, and the corporation is illegally producing prohibited combat BIOTS to form Maximum's private underground army.

Under this guise of efficient progress, Maximum has their own plans for the future which they are calling the "Maximum Era". Through the construction of the fortress of Cyberville, an immense survival shelter where only the wealthiest and most elite humans will retreat, and the take over of Metropia by Maximum's BIOT armies, their plans all ultimately involve the dark path of decline and extinction as the culminating result of man's prior errors and efforts, once Earth finally succumbs to its slowly deteriorating state.

The only hope for the survival of humanity is the Ghost Jungle — thousands of square miles of mutated vegetation that may be the planet's salvation. This secret source of life is submerged beneath Metropia, unseen by most. College student Kit Walker Jr. is chosen by fate to save the world, donning the black mask and purple suit of his people's saviour, the 24th Phantom.

The role of the Phantom has been passed on from father to son since the 16th century, leading the world to believe that the Phantom is a single immortal individual. Kit is young, unsure, and inexperienced, but he finds within him the courage and might to battle the evil that threatens to destroy the Earth.

Episodes