Released Screenshot Of Kamp Koral Revives Dread Over SpongeBob Spinoff

A potentially leaked screenshot of Kamp Koral has revived dread over the upcoming SpongeBob SquarePants 3D-animated spinoff that Nickelodeon will release this summer.

On Monday, actor, writer, and Twitter user Jace Diehl posted a picture saying it was the "first look" at Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years. The picture shows SpongeBob and Patrick in summer camp uniforms. There is no official word from Viacom or Nickelodeon if the still is indeed from Kamp Koral.

In a subsequent tweet, Diehl noted the entire voice cast of SpongeBob will return to reprise their roles in the series. He also provided another still image of what looked like a promotional photo from Kamp Koral, though it was later confirmed by a Nickelodeon storyboard artist to be a press photo for the upcoming SpongeBob film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

The prequel series, which will follow SpongeBob as a 10-year old at the titular sleepaway camp and evidently feature child versions of the original cast, has been derided ever since it was announced in June of 2019. Many believe the shows very existence goes against the wishes of the series creator Stephen Hillenberg, who passed from ALS in 2018. Hillenberg stated in 2009 that he "did not see" any spinoffs in the cards for SpongeBob, and his former coworkers believed Hillenberg would have hated the idea. Former showrunner Paul Tibbitt tweeted that the show was "greedy, lazy executive-ing." In a Longreads piece he wrote in 2018, Tibbitt recalled:

In the animation business, you know, there always used to be a sort of joke. When you run out of ideas, you just do Muppet Babies. Steve [Hillenburg] would always say to me, ‘You know, one of these days, they’re going to want to make SpongeBob Babies. That’s when I’m out of here.'

The screenshot, official or not, was enough to remind people that Kamp Koral is almost here, and a flood of opinions from the divided fanbase spread through Twitter. Many expressed disappointment at what they saw as Nickelodeon wringing cash from SpongeBob despite Hillenburg's wishes.

Others were more cautious about piling on the show before it was released.

Though Twitter seems divided on how to react to Kamp Koral, it's safe to say that very few people appear to be actually looking forward to it.