Wildwood, the new stop-motion epic from Laika, the studio behind Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, opens in US theaters nationwide this Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. It is the studio’s first film in seven years, its first ever PG-13 rating, and at 131 minutes the longest stop-motion animated film ever made. Here is the release date, the cast, the rating, and what the early reviews say.
When does Wildwood come out, and where can you see it?
Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, in theaters across the United States, distributed nationwide by Fathom Entertainment, per Laika’s announcement. This is a full theatrical release, not a limited Fathom event engagement, and tickets are on sale at Fathom and participating theater box offices. FilmNation handles international sales. No streaming date has been announced. The film already premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 11, where it drew critical acclaim.
What is Wildwood about?
Based on Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s 2011 novel, the film follows Prue McKeel, a teenager whose infant brother Mac is abducted by a murder of crows. Prue and her classmate Curtis Mehlberg follow them into a forbidden, enchanted forest and find a hidden world of magical creatures and warring factions, ruled in part by Alexandra, a grieving dowager whose sorrow has twisted into dark magic. Travis Knight, Laika’s president and CEO, directs from a script by Chris Butler (ParaNorman, Missing Link).
Who is in the Wildwood cast?
- Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue McKeel
- Jacob Tremblay as Curtis Mehlberg, Prue’s steadfast classmate
- Carey Mulligan as Alexandra, the exiled governess lost in grief
- Mahershala Ali as Brendan, the Bandit King
- Angela Bassett as the General, a giant golden eagle who guides Prue
- Awkwafina as Septima, a rat; Charlie Day as Dmitri, a coyote
- Plus Jake Johnson, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits and Richard E. Grant
Caleb Deschanel is the cinematographer, with music by Dario Marianelli.
What is Wildwood rated?
PG-13, a first for Laika. Every previous Laika feature (Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo, Missing Link) was PG. The studio has signaled this is its darkest, most adult-skewing story, and the 131-minute runtime makes it the longest stop-motion film ever released.
The 15-year road to the screen
- September 2011: Laika announces the adaptation just weeks after the novel’s release.
- September 2021: Production officially confirmed with Travis Knight directing and Chris Butler writing.
- August 2022: The all-star voice cast is revealed.
- 2023-2025: Handcrafted production at Laika’s Hillsboro, Oregon studios, the studio’s most ambitious build ever.
- Oct. 11, 2026: World premiere at the BFI London Film Festival to critical acclaim.
- Oct. 23, 2026: Nationwide US theatrical release.
What this means for moviegoers
If you love Coraline, buy the ticket: this is the same studio swinging bigger than ever, and the early word out of London is strong. Plan for the runtime: at 2 hours 11 minutes it is a commitment, and PG-13 means it plays older than the usual Laika Halloween-season rewatch, so gauge younger kids accordingly. It opens the same Friday as Clayface, Ali G: Who Iz I? and Klara and the Sun, one of the year’s most crowded frames: see our full guide to the week’s new releases. Booking early for Friday and Saturday evening shows is smart in big metros, since animation fans have waited seven years for this one.
Our analysis: Laika’s biggest bet arrives at the perfect moment
Wildwood is a statement film in every sense. Laika could have sold it to a streamer years ago; instead the studio built a bespoke distribution path with Fathom and FilmNation specifically to keep it an independent theatrical event. The timing is loaded: the 15th-anniversary Coraline re-release pulled $56 million worldwide, proving a generation that grew up on Laika now buys tickets as adults, and the PG-13 rating is a direct play for that audience. There’s also an industry undercurrent: Knight has framed the film as a celebration of “artistry over algorithms” at the exact moment AI-generated animation is the industry’s anxiety topic, and the London acclaim suggests the handcraft argument landed. If Wildwood opens well against a superhero horror film and a Sacha Baron Cohen comedy, expect every studio to suddenly remember that audiences will pay for movies made slowly, by hand.
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