Forget Thanos. Forget The Joker. Forget Darth Vader. We all know the most despicable supervillain in cinema history is Feathers McGraw, the beady-eyed felonious fake fowl who was last seen (rightfully) rotting in jail at the end of Aardman Animations' BAFTA and Academy Award winning 1993 short The Wrong Trousers. (Or, glimpsed in a cameo at the end of Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget.) But now, thirty years later, he's back! Yes, the pernicious penguin who laughs in the face of the law is set to return in the im-peck-ably titled Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Check out a sneak-peek at the film, which is set to release on both Netflix and the BBC simultaneously this Christmas, below:
Netflix and Aardman also shared a synopsis for the feature-length stop-motion caper: "Vengeance Most Fowl sees Gromit’s growing concern as Wallace becomes over-dependent on his inventions – which proves justified when Wallace invents a ‘smart gnome’ that seems to develop an evil mind of its own. But who or what could be the cause? As events begin to spiral out of control, it’s up to Gromit to put aside his qualms and battle sinister forces, or Wallace may never be able to invent again!" Cracking takedown of modern technology and the rise of A.I., Gromit!
Talking of, have a butchers at the intrepid dog-and-his-man duo in the first still from Vengeance Most Fowl:
Leading the voice cast as Wallace in Vengeance Most Fowl will be Ben Whitehead, an Aardman regular known for the likes of The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists and Early Man. In the wake of the iconic Peter Sallis' passing in 2017, Whitehead has voiced the cheese-mad inventor in several projects, but this will be his first feature-length appearance in the role. He'll be joined by Peter Kay, who's set to reprise his Curse Of The Were-Rabbit role as Chief Inspector Mackintosh, alongside franchise newcomers Lauren Patel, Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan, Adjoa Andoh, and Lenny Henry.
In a press release accompanying the latest update on Vengeance Most Fowl, Wallace and Gromit creator Park hyped up the return of Feathers McGraw. "The single most asked question I get when I meet fans is, will the penguin Feathers McGraw, Wallace and Gromit’s original antagonist from The Wrong Trousers 30 years ago, ever return?" he noted. "We’ve had fun bringing him back in cameo capacities but now, three decades on, it felt like the right time."
Prepare for an all-new cinematic genre as a result. "We’re hoping that this film will appeal to fans of “Gnome Noir” everywhere," says Park, "and that people will be gratified when they see what Feathers has been up to since The Wrong Trousers.” We'll be sleeping with one eye open now we know Feathers has flown the jailbird nest once again.