McDonald's Plans To Launch CosMc's, A New Alien-Themed Spinoff

Aliens and burgers might seem to be an unlikely combination, but apparently, McDonald's doesn't think so. The fast-food burger chain just announced that it's launching a spinoff restaurant like you've never seen before: an alien-themed joint dubbed "CosMc's." McDonald's has kept pretty mum about what the new concept will entail. In 2023's Q2 earnings call, president and CEO Chris Kempczinski revealed that the spinoff restaurant is in the works and will enter a testing period in 2024.

"Our new business ventures team is in the process of developing a new concept we will call [CosMc's], which we will test in a small handful of sites in a limited geography beginning early next year," Kempczinski said, according to the earnings call transcript. He added that "[CosMc's] is a small format concept with all the DNA of McDonald's but its own unique personality." (There were no details on what "limited geography" specifically means or where the test restaurants will actually pop up.)

The name, pronounced "Cosmics," was inspired by a former McDonald's alien mascot with the same name who appeared in the restaurant's ad campaigns more than 30 years ago. The mascot was an alien who came to earth to get its hands on McDonald's. And while that is the name of the new, small-format restaurant concept, it's unclear exactly what role CosMc will play in McDonald's spinoff. 

We can assume the space will be alien-themed, but McDonald's hasn't revealed anything more than the concept's name and that it will have a "unique" personality, meaning its décor and menu will probably differ from a traditional McDonald's.

Earlier this year, McDonald's brought back a former mascot, Grimace, who wound up going viral. Experiencing the "Grimace Shake," which was a purple milkshake, became a TikTok trend. It could explain why McDonald's is choosing to take things a step further by bringing another old mascot back into the mix.