Duo the owl’s next big act is an animated series

FastCompany: Duo the owl has twerked on main, flash mobbed a Charli XCX concert, died, sent his ashes to Dua Lipa, and come back to life. His next big act? Starring in his own animated show. DuoTV is a new animated series that was created entirely by Duolingo’s in-house design studio. The six-episode series stars in-app characters including Duo himself, the deadpan goth teen Lily, her best friend Zari, and a grumpy bear named Falstaff as they navigate working at a mysterious grocery store called DuoMart.

The first two episodes, which will be published on Duolingo’s official YouTube channel and Instagram page, air on October 12 , followed by a new daily episode until the finale. For Duolingo, the language and educational learning app, the series is part of a broader mission to deepen the relationship between its fans and its characters. Duo and his motley crew first noticeably entered the zeitgeist during the COVID-19 pandemic , when the brand’s uniquely irreverent humor on social media helped it amass a major following.

In the years since, the brand has continuously upped the ante on investing in its characters and design team to keep users coming back for more. “We tell everyone right from the get-go, we want to be a hundred-year business,” says Mig Reyes, Duolingo’s head of design. The brand believes that kind of longevity will require more than just an Android and iOS app. Specifically, it’s betting that by building out an entire world around its characters through efforts like DuoTV —essentially, creating its own entertainment arm—it can set itself up for the next several decades of business growth.

[Image: Duolingo] Duolingo bets big on character lore Duolingo has long been the envy of marketers everywhere for its uniquely beloved mascot and characters, which serve as both the basis of the brand’s marketing flywheel and guides to its in-product features. In 2024, Duolingo’s CEO, Luis von Ahn, estimated the owl’s value at “hundreds of millions of dollars” and posited that around 15% of new users come to the app via organic social media. Today, Duo’s fanbase includes 5.3 million Instagram followers, 6.94 million YouTube followers, and 18.2 million TikTok followers.

Its senior director of brand marketing, Katherine Chan, told Fast Company in late 2024 that the company aimed to make Duo “more famous than Mickey Mouse.” Characters like Duo, Lily, and Falstaff serve as great external marketing tools, but Duolingo has also used them to help build out new in-product functions. Lily, for example, is the voice of the brand’s recently debuted AI-powered speaking function Video Call ; while others, like Lucy, Bea, and Zari, guide users through interactive mini podcasts on DuoRadio .

Duo himself has helped to drive major in-app engagement through activations including, in one instance, an update that replaced his normally chipper app icon with a “ dead Duo ” (he eventually came back to life). As Duolingo’s roster of characters has become more critical both to its social media growth and its in-product navigation, the company has funneled significant resources into building out its design team. The company says the team’s size has more than tripled since 2021, growing an average of about 30% per year over the past five years, to an estimated current head count of around 150 employees.

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Duolingo's launch of an animated series represents a significant move in brand engagement strategies, though character-driven content is not entirely new, making it relevant and impactful for brand strategists.