On Wednesday morning, Mike Catherwood spent an hour on a call with Quibi executives for his new animated project, “Rudy.” Then, he went to pick up his daughter from school. By the time he got home, Quibi was dead.

“I have to assume that those executives didn’t know,” Catherwood told Variety. “Otherwise they’re really good actors. Because we had an hourlong conversation about moving forward in scripts, like what’s working on script number three and what’s not. To then read the news, I was completely blown away.”

Catherwood, whose project had been greenlighted, but not yet officially announced, is one of presumably dozens of series creators and showrunners who find themselves — and their shows — in limbo now that Quibi has called it quits.

“Rudy,” based on a character that Catherwood first created in junior high school, and then voiced on radio shows such as “Kevin & Bean...