J.G. Quintel is bringing Regular Show back to television after nine years away, with The Lost Tapes set to premiere May 11 in a half-hour special. The revival marks the return of the animated series that first debuted Sept. 6, 2010 and built a following over 244 episodes and eight seasons.

The first 10 episodes of The Lost Tapes will air on Cartoon Network and stream on HBO Max in June, with 30 additional episodes planned for later release. Quintel said the new run will answer “everybody’s questions,” and he added that looking back, he still wonders, “How did they greenlight it?”

Regular Show was one of Cartoon Network’s most successful series during its original run, and it picked up six Emmy nominations along the way, winning in 2012 for outstanding short-format animated program. That success helped make the revival notable not just as a nostalgia play, but as the return of a show that once thrived by taking odd, fast-moving swings that still connected with viewers.

Quintel also said the network was in a creator-focused period that let artists take bigger risks, which helps explain how the series found an audience in the first place. He said some of the material was so strange it made the team laugh, a remark that fits a pilot in which Mordecai and Rigby swipe a magical synthesizer from a wizard while he is peeing in a bush.

The original series was tightly wrapped up before the revival was announced, leaving the new title to do more than reopen a finished story. If The Lost Tapes delivers on Quintel’s promise, the bigger draw will be whether it can explain the gaps that fans have been asking about while recapturing the strange, quick-witted tone that made Regular Show stand out in the first place.