Following the 2022 announcement of a new feature-length Wallace & Gromit adventure, Aardman Animations has shared details of the film.
Titled Vengeance Most Fowl, the 70-minute film will receive a global release via Netflix this winter, save for the UK, where it will be premiered via the BBC.
Vengeance Most Fowl marks the return of villainous penguin Feathers McGraw, who has been behind bars since his memorable appearance in 1993's Wallace & Gromit short The Wrong Trousers — save for a cameo appearance in last year's Chicken Run sequel, Dawn of the Nugget.
In The Wrong Trousers, McGraw rents a room in Wallace and Gromit's home, eventually revealing himself to be a wanted criminal harnessing the power of Wallace's inventions to steal a precious diamond. A teaser you can view below shows the penguin is ready for revenge, cracking his neck menacingly as he steps out of prison.
A synopsis for Vengeance Most Fowl reads as follows:
Gromit's concern that Wallace has become over-dependant on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a "smart gnome" that seems to develop a mind of its own...As events spiral out of control, it falls to Gromit to put aside his qualms and battle sinister forces - or Wallace may never be able to invent again!
"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," Wallace & Gromit creator and Vengeance Most Fowl director Nick Park shared in a statement. "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."