Per the official logline, “Wildwood is a sweeping, darkly magical adventure about a young girl who ventures into a dangerous hidden forest to rescue her brother—an odyssey shaped by love, power, and the courage to confront the unknown.” Knight has said Wildwood is Laika’s most ambitious project to date, featuring pitched battles and several aerial sequences. “We’ve had to build up the creative tools, the technology and our storytelling muscles to do this book justice,” he told Empire in 2024. The film required 136 sets and 231 practical puppets, augmented with some VFX.
Peyton Elizabeth Lee voices Prue, while Jacob Tremblay voices Curtis, and Carey Mulligan voices Alexandra. The cast also includes Angela Bassett as a giant golden eagle called the General, Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine as Prue’s parents, and Arthur Knight as her baby brother, Mac.
In addition, the film will feature Mahershala Ali as Brendan the Bandit King, Jemaine Clement as Roger Swindon, Awkwafina as a rat named Septima, Charlie Day as a coyote named Dmitri, Amandla Stenberg as Niamh, Tom Waits as Maxim, Tantoo Cardinal as Iphigenia, Richard E. Grant as the wise old Owl Rex, Marc Evan Jackson as Lars Svik, and Len Cariou as Richard. Rob Delaney, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and Blythe Danner will voice as-yet-undisclosed roles.
Wildwood opens in theaters on October 23, 2026.