In a world divided by faith, former Disney executive describes his cartoon action-adventure series God’s Gang as a bridge to cultural and religious differences.
God’s Gang is a YouTube cartoon series centred on an interfaith team of superheroes, created by Nimrod Avraham-May. With its first special airing in 2023 to over 4.6 million views, its channel now has over 2million+ subscribers.
The series celebrated its sixth and latest instalment on April 8, which was shown through a virtual Q and A hosted by May and his writing team.
The show’s main group (the God’s Gang) are four interfaith superheroes:
- Sumuslim, a Muslim who utilizes sumo for fights, and has a superpower called “hypno-storytelling.”
- TaekWonHindu, a girl who fights with taekwondo, uses telepathy on animals and multiplies her arms like a Hindu god.
- Ninjew, a Jewish boy with a laser vision and “Kabbalah invisibility powder.”
- Chris Cross, a Southern Baptist preacher who knows karate and can detect any object thrown at him.
Interwoven into the storylines are elements of humor, including jokes, one-liners and subtle messages promoting themes of interfaith harmony, friendship, cooperation, and acceptance. These themes align with the broader objective of fostering unity and empathy among the show’s audience.
The latest episode – Epic Showdown of Light vs Darkness – sees the team fighting fight corporate greed in a climatic battle to protect nature, all while battling their own fears. The episode also introduced a Buddhist warrior called Kungfuda, who is set to be a regular character in future episodes.
The online pilot episode attracted over 3 million viewers within three months of its release and 250,000 subscribers across social media platforms by December 2023. The 2nd episode has approximately 122,000 views as of February 2025.
The show’s creative team is spread over 15 countries, including an animation studio in Indonesia. “We had 67 Muslim animators working on the first episode,” May added. God’s Gang has also partnered with Autism in Entertainment and Spectrum Laboratory to cast neurodiverse actors. Actor and autism awareness advocate Atticus Baldwin, nephew of Alec Baldwin, is part of the cast, in keeping with the series’ mission to promote diversity both on and off screen.
In the Q and A, May revealed the origins of the show of how he initially pitched the idea to Disney back in 2006: “I offered to take the Power Rangers, which was one of their most successful IPs, and turn it into a group of interfaith heroes,” he said.
“But luckily for me, Disney didn’t do it,” May added, in an expression gratitude in being able to have the freedom to create the show, which he proudly termed as the “first team of interfaith superheroes”. May has raised capital to kickstart the series, but it has been a largely self-funded passion project.
May was asked where he found the inspiration for such a show. He admits that the show was loosely-inspired by his parents, who, despite their Jewish upbringings, always invited Arab and Christian into their household: “[They] always told me that ‘if there is one thing we should be targeting for, it is coexistence.”
With varying conflicts currently happening in the world as a result of religious division, such as the ongoing War in Gaza, May highlighted the show as being a source of “good news” and “something we need more than ever”.
“I thought it would be good for kids to learn how we can basically co-exist based on shared values,” he said.
“We don’t care where you are from, what culture or religion you represent, as long as you apply the values for building a thriving humanity. And that is what we wanted to incorporate in the show,” he added.
Although the show concentrates on interfaith, May was adamant to not call his show a ‘religious programme’.
When asked if the show can appeal to agnostic and/or atheist audiences, May explained: “Even though we have ‘God’ in the title, the primary objective is to entertain through the action adventure and comedy [and] we’re not preaching in any way the scriptures of ancient texts, we are exercising the right to bring entertainment through mass audiences.”
Based on comments left on the show’s YouTube and TikTok accounts, the pilot has resonated with people from a variety of backgrounds. Emma Thorne, a popular British YouTuber and atheist, described it in a review as a “fun” and “visually appealing” way to show children “that it is perfectly OK to have differences, to be members of different faiths, and to still be friends.”
Joining May was co-writer and five-time Emmy and Grammy Award winner, Rob Kutner, who served as a showrunner for The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien until January 22, 2010.
Kunter described his eventual association with May and the latter’s cartoon as ‘one of divine prominence’.
“Nimrod and I have a mutual friend whom I’ve worked with for many years,” he says. “I was leaving the world of Late Night and was watching the world come apart and was thinking ‘what can I – a guy who makes cartoons and jokes – do about that?’”
Rob praised the show for its novelty and refusal to follow a basic formula.
“It’s nice to be working on something that’s original, valuable for people and personally meaningful,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Kutner, who lives in Los Angeles, described God’s Gang as “ambitious” and very different from faith-based children’s shows such as “VeggieTales” and “Davey and Goliath,” both of which aimed to spread Christian ideas and values.
He particularly highlighted the inclusion of an interfaith advisory council which comprises experts from the four different religious backgrounds and how important it was to authentically represent the different religions onscreen. The council includes a Rabbi (Shlomo Chayen), a Baptist pastor (Brandon Jones), a Hindu specialist (Sanya Tyagi) and two Imam members (Abed Mawasi and Mekye Abdus Salaam).
With the introduction of Kungfuda, the council now includes Buddhist expert and Shaolin disciple, Gene Ching. Kutner joked “I really wanted to get it [the representation] right, so that he [the Buddhist advisor] doesn’t chop my head off with his sword.” He added, “although we’re making a cartoon, we’re certainly NOT making a cartoon out of the faiths.”
May promised that there will be more episodes of God’s Gang in the future and is now looking for partners and investors to expand the show’s fictional universe. This could mean other faiths joining the super team.
“We want to follow other smart IPs’ steps; create weekly episodes, develop a mobile game, build ways to give people the right mindset and the right tools to practice what God is practicing,” he states.
God’s Gang is available on YouTube.
