Anyone who has seen the original 1978 adaptation of Watership Down will tell you that, just because it features talking rabbits, it is not like most–or really any–other animated film about anthropomorphic animals. You can really only have so many bloody bunny deaths before you realize you aren’t watching a traditional kid’s movie. For those who have never seen the original though, the first trailer for Netflix and the BBC‘s new remake of author Richard Adams’ bestselling novel shows just how epic and thrilling a story about rabbits can be.
Adapted by Tom Bidwell and directed by Noam Murro, the series’ first trailer, via Entertainment Weekly, offers a tense glimpse at a “tale of adventure, courage and survival,” as the four-part mini-series follows “a band of rabbits as they flee the certain destruction of their home.” It stars James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult as brothers Hazel and Fiver, who go on a difficult journey full of dangerous obstacles and enemies to find their group a new place to live. They aren’t the only big names in the star-studded cast though. The series also features performances from John Boyega, Ben Kingsley, Daniel Kaluuya, Rosamund Pike, Gemma Arterton, Taron Egerton, and Peter Capaldi.
We’ve written before that we hope this new adaptation will embrace just how epic the original story really is, and that it will focus less on the violence, which is what the original film is most remembered for. This first trailer has us very optimistic on both accounts.
Even though we know we’re still going to see lots of dead bunnies.
Watership Down scurries to Netflix on December 23, and on BBC One in the U.K. on December 22 and 23.
Featured Image: Netflix/BBC One
