Malia Mendez | Los Angeles Times (TNS)Tom Kenny is canonizing a popular “SpongeBob SquarePants” fan theory. Kenny, who has voiced the animated series’ star sponge since the show’s premiere in 1999 and received two Daytime Emmy Awards for his performance, recently confirmed that his character has autism. “SpongeBob’s kind of on the spectrum, too, as a character,” he said during a May Q&A at Motor City Comic Con in Detroit. Most likely, show creator Stephen Hillenburg — who died in 2018 — didn’t intentionally write SpongeBob as a character who has autism, Kenny told Bleeding Cool in 2017. The series’ fourth spinoff movie, “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” — which follows 2021’s “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run” — premieres Aug. 2 on Netflix.

Source: Los Angeles Times July 25, 2024 18:17 UTC