Franklin from 'Peanuts' gets to shine in new animated Apple TV+ special

The mild-mannered Franklin — the first Black character in the “Peanuts” comic strip — gets to shine in his own animated Apple TV+ special this month in a story about friendship

NEW YORK -- The mild-mannered Franklin — the first Black character in the “Peanuts” comic strip — gets to shine in his own animated Apple TV+ special this month in a story about friendship.

Franklin is a newcomer who bonds with Charlie Brown and is welcomed to the Peanuts universe in “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin," which premieres on Friday.

Co-writer Robb Armstrong, the cartoonist behind the “Jump Start” strip., says he's building on the blueprints that “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz left. “Whenever you start with good ingredients, you have to work hard to make a bad cake out of it,” he says.

Race is never explicitly mentioned but Armstrong and co-writer Scott Montgomery make a subtle nod when Franklin surveys the kids in his new town and remarks, “One thing was for sure: There was a lack of variety in this place.”

“I never wanted to come off preachy or anything, but it needed to be handled in the same way that I handled it in ‘Jump Start,’" says Armstrong. "I don’t come out and call people anything. I let the characters participate in a problem solving process.”