Elvis Presley fans are fuming at Netflix’s new King-inspired cartoon which sees a fictional version of the late Hound Dog hitmaker become a secret agent. Viewers have dubbed the show “disrespectful”, and some have even called the new release completely “unnecessary”.
Agent Elvis sees Matthew McConaughey voice the “King of Rock and Roll”, while Kaitlin Olson voices “CeCe Ryder” and Johnny Knoxville stars as “Bobby Ray”.
The supporting characters, all based around Elvis, support him in his mission to protect the world from being destroyed by villains.
Clips released on the official Elvis Instagram account show the King involved in a vicious battle with “zombie hippies”, with knives and a lot of expletives.
An official synopsis for the programme dubs Agent Elvis an “adult animated comedy”.
READ MORE: BBC viewers ‘switch off’ as they slam ‘dated’ Baldrick sketch
The description continues: “Elvis trades his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret spy program to stop villains from destroying the world.”
So far ten episodes have been released on Netflix, but Elvis fans really aren’t happy with some aspects of the gory cartoon series.
User @hayleyykiing said: “It’s giving Velma energy, this is awful I’m sorry but Elvis does not deserve to be disrespected like this.
While @okayalyssa added: “Um, this seems horrible…”
Account @tcbteacher added: “Why did it have to be so violent? The violence is completely unnecessary and takes away from Elvis.”
Agreeing @ashleeybates said: “I was expecting something a lot better… was even planning on watching today, but now, idk. This is gross and doesn’t seem like Elvis.”
@smooth.criminal24 said: “None of this represents Elvis or the time he lived in.
“The amount of profanity and violence in this show is unheard of in 1960s pop culture, this is a bunch of 21st-century garbage dumped into an amazing character.”
Finishing off the comments, @leiva_rseb wrote: “This is so unnecessary.”
The controversy comes after co-creator and co-showrunner John Eddie told Screen Rant how they had planned to “honour Elvis” with the show.
He said: “Our intention was to respect and honour the cool of Elvis.
“But also to push the envelope and make a very cool and rock and rolling show, too.”
He added: “I’m such a huge Elvis fan, I’ve seen every movie about Elvis, every TV series.
“Every time, no matter how great the actor is who depicted Elvis, you never got past the fact that they didn’t look like Elvis.
“You never got past the fact that they weren’t Elvis. That’s why I pitched it as an animated series. I thought that was maybe the closest way to get past that hesitation.”
Agent Elvis is now streaming worldwide on Netflix.
