Is Jake dead during ‘Adventure Time’ spin-off ‘Fionna & Cake?’

In the summer of 2023, Max released its Adventure Time spin-off Fionna & Cake, starring the fictional characters that Ice King (now, Simon Petrikov) created during the original show. Fionna and Cake the Cat were joined by familiar faces like Marceline, Princess Bubblegum, and most importantly, Finn the Human. However, people noticed that another character was missing in this series.

It’s not just Fionna & Cake where we saw Jake missing after the events of Adventure Time‘s final season. In the Adventure Time: Distant Lands episode, titled “Obsidian,” the yellow dog was also missing in action and we only saw the human adventurer hanging out with one of Jake’s children. While it was revealed in “Together Again” that he and Jake had died and were then reincarnated, did Jake die during Finn’s adulthood?

Where’s Jake in the Adventure Time spin-off Fionna & Cake?

In episode two, titled “Simon Petrikov,” Finn was seen without his talking dog partner, Jake. This yellow dog has been with Finn since the pilot episode. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be seen in the first two episodes of this spin-off and many wondered where he went.

In an interview with Inverse, Fionna & Cake showrunner, Adam Muto revealed that that they’ve left Jake’s fate ambiguous since “it wasn’t important” for this series. He pointed out that the show had shown Finn and Jake at the end of their lives in previous Adventure Time episodes and believes that showing how and when these two die would be a downer.

“Yeah. Jake’s current state is probably left the most mysterious out of everybody…

“…I mean, if there’s a really simple answer to that, I don’t think it would be satisfying. We’ve shown Finn and Jake at the end of their lives. How it resolves. That’s the more important ending to me. You’ve shown them dead, basically. We don’t really show how Finn dies either. The how of it isn’t necessarily as interesting to me to show on screen because that’s kind of a downer.

“So we left it ambiguous. It wasn’t important for this series.”

So… Is Jake actually dead?

However, The Direct reported that Muto confirmed the pair’s return in Fionna & Cake since he wants to show the differences between Fionna and Cake’s dynamic to Finn and Jake’s. He also believes it wouldn’t make sense if the iconic duo didn’t show up in this show.

“We do still kind of show a snapshot of them where they’re at because it didn’t make sense to not show them at all. And we also want to see what the contrast is between Finn and Jake and Fionna and Cake’s dynamic. So, yeah, expect to see some versions of them.”

So indeed, audiences do see Jake, and Finn as well in the series’ third episode, “Cake the Cat.” They are shown on another adventure of their own, to start things off, but their appearance is somewhat brief. However, it’s never confirmed if these two are the same versions from the initial series or just multiverse variants of these iconic characters, based on the spin-off’s plot.

All 10 episodes featuring Fionna and Cake the cat, as well as the sightings of Finn and Jake in Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake are streaming on Max.