• Laika unveiled the first teaser trailer for Wildwood at Cannes’ Martinez Hotel on Tuesday
• The stop-motion film has been in development since 2011 and production since 2021 — making it Laika’s first release of the 2020s
• Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay lead an enormous voice cast that includes Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Tom Waits, and more
• Travis Knight directs from a screenplay by Chris Butler; Fathom Entertainment releases it in the U.S. on October 23

Fifteen years after Laika first optioned the book, Wildwood finally has a trailer — and it looks like it was worth every single year of the wait.

The stop-motion studio behind Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings debuted the first teaser for its long-awaited adaptation at a press event at the Martinez Hotel in Cannes on Tuesday, giving the world its first real look at what may be the most ambitious project the studio has ever attempted. Backed by M83’s haunting “My Tears are Becoming a Sea,” the footage follows two seventh-graders as they venture deep into a hidden enchanted forest — and if the visuals are any indication, Laika has outdone itself.

Based on the 2011 New York Times bestselling novel by Colin Meloy — frontman of indie rock band The Decemberists — with illustrations by his wife Carson Ellis, Wildwood tells the story of headstrong teenager Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) whose baby brother Mac is abducted by a murder of crows. Desperate to get him back, Prue charges into the Impassable Wilderness, a magical world hidden just beyond Portland, Oregon, dragging along her loyal but hapless classmate Curtis Mehlberg (Jacob Tremblay) for the ride. What they find there is a sprawling world of talking animals, bandits, and powerful figures driven by grief and ambition — and a conflict that threatens the entire balance of the forest.

Meloy wrote the novel drawing on classic fantasy and traditional folk tales, weaving in a deep love for Portland that fans of the book will recognize immediately throughout the trailer. Director Travis Knight — who grew up in Portland himself — clearly shares that affection. There’s even a Hawthorne Bridge cameo tucked into the teaser for the locals.

A Cast That Could Not Be More Stacked

Lee and Tremblay lead a voice ensemble that reads like someone handed Laika a blank check and told them to dream big. Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Richard E. Grant, Awkwafina, Charlie Day, Tom Waits, Amandla Stenberg, Maya Erskine, Jake Johnson, Rob Delaney, Jemaine Clement, Blythe Danner, and Tantoo Cardinal are all on board — among others. It is, to put it plainly, a lot of talent in one forest.

Knight directs from a screenplay by Chris Butler, his collaborator on both Kubo and the Two Strings and Masters of the Universe. Knight is also producing alongside Sam Wilson, with Arianne Sutner also producing. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales out of Cannes, and Fathom Entertainment will release the film wide in the U.S. on October 23.

A Long Time Coming for Laika Fans

The road to this trailer has been a long one. Laika optioned Meloy’s novel just weeks after it hit shelves in 2011, and it quickly became one of the most anticipated animated projects in development — a status it held for years with almost no public updates. It wasn’t until 2021 that Knight’s involvement was officially confirmed, along with news that production was finally underway.

Stop-motion is painstaking work by nature, but Laika has always pushed the form further than anyone thought possible. Fans who grew up with Coraline‘s unsettling beauty or the handcrafted wonder of Kubo will recognize the studio’s signature aesthetic in the Wildwood footage — but the scale here feels genuinely new. The Impassable Wilderness is vast and alive in a way that suggests Laika has been quietly raising its own bar for the last four years.

October cannot come soon enough.

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