Wildwood (2026) — LAIKA’s Stop-Motion Fantasy: Release Date, Cast & Trailer

Status: Now in Theaters — Wildwood opened in theaters on October 23, 2026.

Seven years after Missing Link, LAIKA is back — and this is its biggest film yet. Wildwood opens in theaters on October 23 as the studio’s sixth stop-motion feature, a darkly magical fantasy built across 136 hand-crafted sets with 231 practical puppets. When a murder of crows snatches her baby brother, headstrong teenager Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) walks into the Impassable Wilderness — a hidden forest just beyond Portland, Oregon, full of talking animals, bandits and warring factions. Her loyal but hapless classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) comes along, and what starts as a rescue turns into a fight for the forest itself.

Directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) from Chris Butler’s script, with a voice cast led by Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali and Angela Bassett, it is LAIKA’s first PG-13 feature — darker and more ambitious than anything the studio has made before. Reception: 100% on Rotten Tomatoes after its BFI premiere, and already flagged as a possible Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee. Note the PG-13 is for mature content, not a light kids’ film.

Details

• Director: Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings)
• Screenplay: Chris Butler (ParaNorman)
• Based on: the novel Wildwood by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis
• Score: Dario Marianelli
• Release date: October 23, 2026 — in theaters (Fathom Entertainment, US); 4DX, D-BOX, Dolby Cinema in select presentations
• World premiere: October 11 (BFI London Film Festival); US premiere October 21 as AFI FEST Opening Night
• Fan First Screenings: October 19 (Fathom)
• Where to watch: Cinemas from October 23 (tickets on sale at WildwoodMovie.com); no streaming date announced
• Runtime: 131 min — longest stop-motion-animated film by runtime
• Genre: Animation / Adventure / Fantasy / Drama
• Rated: PG-13 (strong fantasy violence, bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity, language) — LAIKA’s first PG-13 feature
• Studio / notes: LAIKA’s sixth feature; first since Missing Link (2019). All five prior LAIKA features earned Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature. Teaser trailer drew ~90M YouTube views, one of the biggest trailer launches for a fully animated film.
• IMDb: Wildwood (2026) on IMDb

Trailer

Watch the official final trailer for Wildwood on YouTube.

Cast

• Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue McKeel
• Jacob Tremblay as Curtis Mehlberg
• Carey Mulligan as Alexandra
• Mahershala Ali as Brendan
• Angela Bassett as the General
• Awkwafina as Septima
• Jake Johnson
• Charlie Day
• Amandla Stenberg as Niamh, bandit leader
• Jemaine Clement as Roger Swindon
• Maya Erskine
• Tantoo Cardinal
• Tom Waits as Maksim
• Richard E. Grant as Owl Rex
• Blythe Danner
• Rob Delaney