Here’s some good, nostalgic news. The only member of the Peanut’s gang – you know, Charlie Brown’s eclectic crew – without an origin story FINALLY has an origin story, and it’s the Black character Franklin!
As reported by Shadow and Act, in the new Apple TV+ Peanuts Special titled Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin, we will learn how Franklin Armstrong himself came to be one of Charlie Brown’s most beloved BFFs. Full stop, did you’ll know his last name was ‘Armstrong?’
Well, here’s what many fans already kinda knew about Franklin Armstrong … He loves music, sports and was first introduced to the Peanuts gang back in 1968. That year meant a lot to well, the world. That’s because creating his character came about after the Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz received a letter from a schoolteacher by the name of Harriet Glickman who implored the artist to add a Black Peanuts character after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to bolster the lack of diversity among Charlie Brown and the rest of his friends. Thanks Harriet!
We won’t give away too much about Franklin’s origin story but there’s a pretty cool discussion with Shadow and Act and Craig Schulz, who is the son of Charles Schulz. Craig serves as executive producer and co-writer of Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin. He let on that his father was pretty much the only comic strip helmer who heard Glickman and answered her request for diversity during a dark moment for America.
Check out the trailer, and let’s celebrate this story for the beloved Peanuts gang character.
