Wallace & Gromit return with Vengeance Most Fowl
- Vengeance Most Fowl, the first Wallace & Gromit special in 16 years, will air on the BBC this Christmas
- The 70 minute animated comedy sees the return of Feathers McGraw, the supervillain penguin from 1993's The Wrong Trousers
- Ben Whitehead will voice Wallace, with the cast list also including Peter Kay, Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan, Adjoa Andoh and Lenny Henry
The BBC has confirmed that the new Wallace & Gromit Christmas special will be titled Vengeance Most Fowl.
The 70 minute special will see the return of Feathers McGraw, the iconic supervillain penguin who first appeared in 1993's The Wrong Trousers.
The BBC says: "One of the UK's favourite duos, Wallace and Gromit, are back with a brand-new adventure, made by multi-award-winning and independent studio Aardman, which will premiere on BBC and BBC iPlayer this Christmas."
The plot for the new special is described as follows: "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!"
A teaser trailer has been released:
This will be the first Wallace & Gromit TV/film adventure since A Matter Of Loaf And Death aired in 2008.
Peter Sallis, who voiced Wallace, died in 2017. It's been confirmed today that Ben Whitehead will take over voicing the much-loved inventor. Whitehead has worked with Aardman for many years, with credits including The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists and Early Man, plus voicing Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit computer games.
Peter Kay will return to voice PC Mackintosh, the character who previously appeared in The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. Mackintosh has now been promoted to Chief Inspector.
The voice cast for Vengeance Most Fowl will also feature Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan, Adjoa Andoh, Lenny Henry and Lauren Patel. Details of their roles will be revealed in due course.
In 1993's BAFTA and Academy Award winning short The Wrong Trousers, the manipulative and calculating Feathers McGraw - already a wanted criminal - rents out a room at Wallace and Gromit's house where he seeks to use Wallace's techno trousers to steal the blue diamond. Talking about his role in the new special, the BBC says: "Rightfully behind bars ever since, he's now back for revenge."
Creator of Wallace & Gromit, Nick Park, says: "I'd had the idea of a film about garden gnomes turning bad for more than a decade, but I could never work out what made them bad. It occurred to me that 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? We've had fun bringing him back in cameo capacities but now, three decades on, it felt like the right time. Then it hit me: What if Feathers was involved with these gnomes? We're hoping that this film will appeal to fans of 'Gnome Noir' everywhere and that people will be gratified when they see what Feathers has been up to since The Wrong Trousers."
The new special is written by Nick Park and Mark Burton, directed by Park and Merlin Crossingham and produced by Richard Beek.
Merlin Crossingham comments: "While we'd love to revive the enthusiasm across our existing fan base, we also want this film to reach people who have never come across Wallace and Gromit before. Hopefully Vengeance Most Fowl is full of everything people love about Wallace and Gromit while introducing new themes to their ongoing story."
Charlotte Moore from the BBC adds: "This new feature-length Wallace and Gromit film will captivate audiences of all ages this Christmas on the BBC, as the longed-for return of Feathers McGraw and some ingenious inventions including a 'smart gnome' make for an unmissable adventure showcasing British creativity at its best."
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will premiere on the BBC this Christmas and, outside of the UK, will be available via Netflix.