Given the subcultural significance that Wet Hot American Summer played among a certain collective of turn-of-the-century “alt” teens, a good deal of anxiety preceded the release the Netflix original series First Day of Camp, David Wain and Michael Showalter’s first attempt at a follow-up to the 2001 feature. But now with that 2015 venture, a masterpiece all its own, sitting pretty in the rearview, we can approach Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later with nothing but excitement. And let me say, that excitement is upped tenfold by the mania set forth in the first trailer for the upcoming project.
Taking form yet again as a one-season Netflix series, 10 Years Later picks up (appropriately) a full decade after the events of the original Wet Hot American Summer, landing in the distant future of 1991. Fans will recall that a 10-year reunion was set up in one of the film’s many oft quoted scenes, and even brought to life in a “secret” post-credit sequence. This manifestation of the reunion seems to be veering for a bit more than a single (admittedly terrific) throwaway gag:
As far as we can tell from the new trailer (though take everything you see with a grain of salt considering this universe’s tenuous-at-best relationship with the fabrics of reality), campers like Katie (Marguerite Moreau) and Lindsay (Elizabeth Banks) have moved on to top-dollar jobs in the big city, while others like Andy (Paul Rudd) and J.J. (Zak Orth) don’t seem to have fended so well. Meanwhile, Victor (Ken Marino) and Neil (Joe Lo Truglio) run a bar together, McKinley (Michael Ian Black) has become a father, and the unforetold offspring of Gail (Molly Shannon) and Gene (Christopher Meloni) seems to have reared her bandana-ed head.
So where does the inevitable big, dramatic twist come in? Beth (Janeane Garofalo) is selling Camp Firewood!
The trailer also shows sight of Wet Hot veterans Michael Showalter, Amy Poehler, H. Jon Benjamin, A.D. Miles, and Marisa Ryan (among others), First Day of Camp inductees Kristen Wiig, Jason Schwartzman, and Chris Pine, as well as all new players like Jai Courtney and John Early. Although the absences of David Hyde Pierce and Bradley Cooper sting a bit, the trailer is nothing if not encouraging for another bout of nonsense.
Featured Image: Netflix
