Is President Curtis’ Hollow Earth the Same as Rick and Morty’s? What Happened to the CHUDs?

President Curtis Episode 6 appears to expand the same broader underground world already established in Rick and Morty, but Hollow never explicitly explains where the CHUDs are. President Curtis is an official Rick and Morty spinoff centered on the same Andre Curtis, and Rick and Morty previously established that Earth contains Cannibalistic Horse Underground Dwellers, better known as CHUDs. Episode 6 now introduces the Daaboo, Moss People, mushroom-like civilizations and several additional societies living beneath Earth’s surface. Nothing in Hollow says the CHUDs have disappeared or been replaced. The safest explanation is that Episode 6 is showing different portions of a much larger subterranean world, while the exact relationship between these civilizations remains unconfirmed.

Who are the CHUDs in Rick and Morty?

The CHUDs are a subterranean race of cannibalistic horse people introduced prominently in Rick and Morty Season 5’s Rickdependence Spray. Their name stands for Cannibalistic Horse Underground Dwellers, and they live beneath the surface of Earth. Rick and Morty have apparently fought them before the episode even begins, while President Curtis is also familiar with the species. The conflict eventually escalates into another war before Princess Poñeta’s relationship with Rick creates a truce between the CHUDs and humanity.

That history makes their absence in Hollow noticeable. President Curtis isn’t discovering for the first time that intelligent civilizations exist underground because he already encountered the CHUD situation during Rick and Morty. Episode 6 also establishes that the United States has conducted previous expeditions into Hollow Earth. The new adventure therefore doesn’t erase the older story simply by presenting different underground inhabitants.

Is President Curtis really set in the Rick and Morty universe?

Yes, President Curtis was created as an expansion of the Rick and Morty universe rather than as an unrelated show using a similar character. Andre Curtis originated in Rick and Morty and remains voiced by Keith David. The spinoff shifts the perspective away from Rick Sanchez and toward the President, Banks, O’Doyle and the rest of the administration. That means earlier Curtis adventures are relevant when trying to understand the broader world around him.

There is always some caution required with Rick and Morty continuity because the franchise regularly uses alternate dimensions and replacement realities. Hollow itself, however, gives no indication that its subterranean world is intended as a clean reboot that deletes the CHUDs. Until the series establishes otherwise, the simplest reading is that both stories belong to the same broader continuity surrounding Andre Curtis.

What does Episode 6 reveal about Hollow Earth?

Hollow Earth is much larger and more politically complicated than a single hidden civilization. Curtis and his team initially descend to meet the Daaboo, who live around the Life Tree. The Daaboo once depended directly on the tree’s energy but exhausted it, so they now receive power from the Moss People beneath them. The Moss People are themselves connected to another society farther down, creating a chain of civilizations living on separate underground levels.

The episode deliberately rushes through several additional layers because Curtis repeatedly discovers that every supposed final power source depends on somebody deeper. A montage turns the negotiations into a running joke while making one important piece of geography clear: the underground world is enormous. Curtis is not touring every civilization beneath Earth. He is following one particular vertical energy network until he reaches the ancient spacecraft containing the Gobobears.

So where are the CHUDs during Hollow?

Episode 6 simply does not say. The CHUDs are never mentioned by name, nobody encounters their kingdom, and there is no dialogue stating that they went extinct, moved elsewhere or somehow became one of the new Hollow Earth species. Any more specific answer would currently be speculation.

There are several easy ways the two stories could coexist without contradiction. The CHUDs could occupy another layer that Curtis’ elevator does not stop at, live in a geographically distant underground territory, or simply exist outside the particular energy network being investigated. Hollow Earth is portrayed as sufficiently huge for all of those possibilities, but none has been officially chosen as the explanation. The important point is that an absence from one expedition is not evidence that the CHUDs no longer exist.

Didn’t President Curtis already know about underground civilizations?

Yes, which is another reason Hollow should not be interpreted as Curtis discovering subterranean life for the first time. During Rickdependence Spray, Curtis knows enough about the CHUDs to suspect them when the mutant sperm crisis begins. Episode 6 separately reveals that Janice previously traveled to Hollow Earth during the Clinton era and that the American government tried exploiting the Daaboo. The administration’s knowledge of Earth’s underground world is therefore fragmented but extensive.

That distinction helps the continuity. “Hollow Earth” can be a broad geographical term rather than the name of one unified kingdom. The CHUDs may represent one political or biological population within that enormous environment, while the Daaboo and other Episode 6 groups belong to another network. President Curtis doesn’t need to meet every species every time he travels below the crust, just as visiting one country on the surface doesn’t account for every society on Earth.

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Does Hollow contradict Rickdependence Spray?

No clear contradiction exists yet. Rickdependence Spray establishes that CHUDs live underground, while President Curtis Episode 6 establishes that many other civilizations also live underground. Both things can easily be true at the same time. Hollow never claims that the Daaboo are Earth’s only subterranean species or that its elevator passes through every inhabited level.

The more interesting implication is that Rick and Morty may have shown only a tiny fraction of what exists beneath Earth. The CHUD kingdom once seemed like one of the franchise’s intentionally ridiculous one-off ideas, but President Curtis has now turned underground civilization into a much larger part of the setting. Instead of replacing the CHUDs, Hollow potentially gives them neighbors.

Until President Curtis explicitly revisits them, that is where the answer has to stop. The CHUDs remain part of established Rick and Morty history, while Episode 6 adds new societies without accounting for them individually. Their absence is a continuity question worth noticing, but it is not currently a retcon or plot hole.