Jenny Slate Will Still Voice Missy for Most of 'Big Mouth' Season 4

Big Mouth Season 4 promised some changes in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, but they may not be made as quickly as you expected. Comedian Jenny Slate stepped away from the role of Missy in order to give the animated eighth-grader a voice from a person of color, but most of Season 4 was already filmed.

That means, Slate will voice the majority of Missy during Season 4, though there will be a voice change within it. Ayo Edebiri is taking over to give Missy new life, but it won't happen right away.

On Friday, Netflix released a trailer for the fourth season of Big Mouth, which is slated to air December 4. Missy only speaks once, right at the end of the trailer. In the clip, it appears Slate is still the lead vocalist. That's because Edebiri will only voice Missy for the last two episodes of Season 4. From then on, Edebiri will voice Missy in the already-renewed Seasons 5 and 6 of Big Mouth.

Slate quit the series in July when conversations about Black representation surfaced in all parts of the entertainment industry. Missy is a mixed race character, but Slate is white. "At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissible for me to play 'Missy' because her mom is Jewish and White—as am I," Slate wrote in an Instagram post. "But 'Missy' is also Black, and Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people."

She continued. "I acknowledge how my original reasoning was flawed, that it existed as an example of white privilege and unjust allowances in a system of societal white supremacy, and that in me playing Missy, I was engaging in an act of erasure of Black people."

From the Season 4 trailer, it seems the leading plotline is anxiety. The eighth-graders are off to camp, where they'll meet a swarm of anxiety-provoking mosquitoes. The series revolves around puberty, life adjustments and relationships in an otherwise confusing world, and Missy is just one of many awkward and confused children learning to navigate the world.

Edebiri reasoned she may be a great fit because of their similar past. "I was definitely a very uncomfortable child, so I think the show speaks to that and a lot of those feelings, which still resonate with me as an adult," Edebiri said in an August conversation with Variety.

During the interview, she saw the reflection of Missy's pursuit of knowledge and childhood wonder in her own possessions. "I'm back home in my childhood bedroom right now and on my bookshelf in between 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' is Bill Clinton's autobiography and Nelson Mandela's autobiography and a translation of 'The Iliad' in Latin. I was a true dork. So I don't think I have to go too far to connect with Missy."