Wendell & Wild on Netflix is a scary animated movie to delight us in time for Halloween!
From the deliciously wicked minds of Henry Selick (director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline) and director Jordan Peele (Nope, Us, Get Out) the story follows tough yet guilt-ridden teen Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross), haunted by her past, who must confront her personal demons called Wendell and Wild (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) to start a new life in her old hometown.
Wendell & Wild also features the voices of Angela Bassett, David Harewood, Maxine Peake, James Hong, and Ving Rhames.
So here's everything you need to know about Wendell & Wild on Netflix...
Wendell & Wild release date
Wendell & Wild launches worldwide on Netflix from Friday October 28 2022, just in time to set the scene for Halloween.
Is there a teaser trailer for Wendell & Wild?
Yes there's a full trailer and teaser trailer for Wendell & Wild released by Netflix telling us its time to face our demons. Take a look at both below...
Wendell & Wild plot
Wendell & Wild is an animated tale that follows demon brothers Wendell (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele) as they take on their arch-nemesis the demon-dusting nun Sister Helly (Angela Bassett). They enlist Goth teen Kat Elliot to summon them to the Land of the Living but are not quite prepared for what she demands in return.
Wendell & Wild voice cast — Keegan-Michael Key on playing Wendell
In Wendell & Wild, Keegan-Michael Key voices the demon Wendell. Keegan has lent his voice to animations before, voicing characters in Pinocchio, The Lego Movie, Hotel Transylvania, The Lion King and Toy Story 4. He’s also starred in Schmigadoon!, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, Friends From College, The Predator and the TV series Archer. Keegan-Michael will star in the upcoming movies Wonka and Super Mario Bros: the Movie.
Keegan-Michael Key says: "One of the big things that excited me about the story was that the lead character, Kat, is a person who comes from a disenfranchised segment of our population. And the fact that we’re focusing on her was really special to me. This is a journey about a person that we typically pay no attention to, or a person that sometimes we actively ignore, and a person who is typically underserved. After her parents pass away, Kat becomes part of the foster care system, and I myself am an adoptee. So that was one angle of the story that really resonated with me. And then the other key element for me is the stop motion animation medium. When we think of animation, we think of children, but there’s a very profound theme in this story about grief and how we deal with loss, and the pieces of us that seem to go missing when our loved ones pass away; the different coping mechanisms we develop to try and fill those spaces. And I think Wendell & Wild could be a very useful piece of art for young people. Because even if, as a young person, you haven’t dealt with loss or grief yet when you first see this movie, it might provide a toolkit later on for when you inevitably do."
Jordan Peele on voicing Wild
Jordan voices Wendell’s brother Wild. He’s starred in the series Big Mouth as well as The Twilight Zone, Bob’s Burgers, Key & Peele (with his co-star Keegan-Michael Key) and Fargo. He’s also voiced characters in Toy Story 4, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and SuperMansion.
Jordan Peele says: "There’s something about stop motion animation that is comfort food. It conjures the Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass holiday specials and scratches the nostalgic itch. But there’s so much more to the medium that is even deeper than that, even in its limitations. The idea of breathing life into the inanimate and the magic that comes from that has always been what’s drawn me to puppetry, and I think it’s also a cornerstone of the horror genre as well. The feel and scale itself of stop motion teleports you to somewhere completely unique, a place you don’t get to in other forms of animation. When you are looking at a stop motion piece, you can always tell how big the characters are; the illusion that these puppets are bigger than they are is never fully achievable and that’s part of the charm of it. I think that in itself accesses something in the collective self-conscious that makes people lean in with a certain wonder."
Lyric Ross on voicing Kat Elliot
Lyric Ross plays guilt-ridden teen Kat. She’s previously starred in This is Us, The Class, Chicago Fire and will be in the 2023 series Ironheart.
Lyric says: "I remember auditioning for Kat in Chicago. This had to be over four years ago. It’s pretty cool for me to be a part of something like this that the next generation will get to grow up with, like I did with CORALINE. I knew Kat was an Afropunk girl who dealt with guilt that connects to a tragedy in her past. Nothing the world throws really scares her and not much can get in her way. But, what attracted me most was the story surrounding this character and the mental chains she breaks in this journey."
Who else is starring in Wendell & Wild?
There's an all-star voice cast for Wendell & Wild. Angela Bassett plays Sister Helley, Michele Mariana is Sister Chinstrap, while Homeland actor David Harewood and Maxine Peake have currently unnamed roles. Mission Impossible star Ving Rhames is Buffalo Belzer while Sam Zelaya, Tamara Smart and James Hong also star. Sweetie is voiced by Ramona Young.
