A familiar villain returns in the teaser for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Darth Vader… Hannibal Lecter… The Joker… Hans Gruber. These are the names of some of the most fearsome villains in cinema. But there’s one criminal mastermind making a return that will strike fear into the hearts of men (named Wallace): Feathers McGraw. The disguised penguin is back in the new Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl teaser, and spoiler alert, he’s the fowl wreaking vengeance. When the movie premieres on Netflix on January 3, we’ll get to see this evil plot take shape. 

In the latest feature-length film from award-winning animation studio Aardman, “Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a ‘smart’ gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own,” according to the Netflix synopsis. “When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master… or Wallace may never be able to invent again!”

Feathers McGraw first appeared in director Nick Park’s Oscar-winning 1993 short The Wrong Trousers (the second entry in the Wallace & Gromit series), in which he attempted to control Wallace via techno-trousers to help him steal a diamond from a museum. In the Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl teaser, the villain has managed to make the world think that Wallace is an “evil inventor.” As with the techno-trousers, Feathers’ interference proves that Wallace’s inventions can be dangerous in the wrong hands.

Aardman, one of the most famous and critically acclaimed animation studios in the world, has faced challenges in recent years. In 2023, it was reported that it was running out of the special clay used to craft its stop-motion creations. (Aardman released a statement saying it had enough clay for the time being and was working to come up with new material to use instead.) Last week, the studio made headlines for laying off 20 employees, citing general “market challenges” and specifically unrecouped costs on its animated series Lloyd Of The Flies (per Deadline). Hopefully, a return to the classics (and a classic villain) will be a success for the beloved studio.