LAIKA’s ‘Wildwood’ Drops Haunting New Teaser, and the October Release Can’t Come Soon Enough

A new teaser for LAIKA’s long-awaited stop-motion epic ‘Wildwood’ has arrived, and if the lush, moss-draped imagery is any indication, the studio is about to deliver something genuinely unlike anything else hitting theaters this year. Scheduled to open in the United States on October 23, 2026, the film is a dark fantasy directed by Travis Knight and written by Chris Butler, adapted from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s celebrated 2011 novel.

The new teaser leans hard into atmosphere, offering sweeping glimpses of an overgrown Pacific Northwest wilderness that feels alive with secrets. The footage emphasizes towering forests, dense foliage, and a moody sense of wonder that feels pulled straight from myth, with LAIKA’s attention to detail on full display in every frame. For fans of the studio behind ‘Coraline’ and ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’, the teaser is a reminder that nobody does handcrafted dread and beauty quite like this team.

At the heart of the story, young Prue McKeel ventures beyond Portland’s city limits into an enchanted wonderland after her baby brother Mac is taken by a murder of crows into the forest’s depths, joined on the desperate mission by her hapless classmate Curtis. Meloy is the frontman of Portland-based band the Decemberists, and with the book set in Portland and LAIKA itself based in Portland, producer Sam Wilson has noted that the material is a natural fit, describing the film as Travis Knight’s “love letter to Portland.”

The film boasts a remarkable ensemble voice cast including Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, and Richard E. Grant. The sheer depth of that lineup signals that LAIKA is swinging for the fences on this one, and the studio’s track record of Academy Award nominations for every feature it has produced only raises the stakes further.

The scale of the production is staggering even by stop-motion standards. The film contains 136 locations, many large enough for crew members to walk through, along with 231 practical puppets and 54 hero characters, each engineered and costumed as a bespoke work of art. Director Knight has made no effort to downplay the enormity of the undertaking, telling Empire that ‘Wildwood’ is “the hardest thing we have ever done,” adding that “a huge part of the reason it’s taken us so long to bring this to life cinematically is that it’s incredibly ambitious.”

For distribution, LAIKA has partnered with Fathom Entertainment for the U.S. theatrical release and FilmNation Entertainment, whose recent credits include ‘Anora’ and ‘Conclave’, to handle international sales. Every LAIKA-produced film has received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, making ‘Wildwood’ a serious awards contender and a potential major comeback for the studio following years of absence from theaters.

With October drawing closer and each new teaser revealing more of this extraordinary handmade world, the anticipation is building fast. Whether ‘Wildwood’ joins ‘Coraline’ in the canon of LAIKA’s all-time greats is the question every animation fan is quietly asking themselves right now.