Trivia / Wendell & Wild

• Descended Creator: Producer Jordan Peele provides the voice of Wild.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: The film was first announced in 2015, picked up by Netflix in 2018, and production went on through 2020 and 2021 with the COVID-19 Pandemic hampering progress. Add to that the film being pushed back to 2022 from its intended late 2021 release, and it took seven years for the film to have been made - a long time even by stop-motion standards. Compare this to another Key and Peele animated feature, Toy Story 4. Both works started within months of each other when Key & Peele was still on the air and the two were frequent collaborators. Toy Story 4's own production isses ensured that it came out in 2019, years after Peele basically retired from acting and comedy and ended his creative partnership with Key to pursue directing full-time. Wendell and Wild took so much longer that many believed it was a Key and Peele reunion.
• Fake American: Sam Zelaya is from London but takes on an American accent to play Raul.
• Meaningful Release Date: The film has been marketed as being extremely horror-oriented and was released shortly before Halloween.
• Production Posse: In addition to the reunion of Key & Peele, the film sees director Henry Selick reunite with his Coraline composer, Bruno Coulais.
• Promoted Fanboy: In addition to voicing Wild, Jordan Peele also co-wrote and produced the film due to being a huge fan of Stop Motion Animation. This is most evident with the opening logo (made by Wendy Fuller, who also made an animation for this film) for the motion pictures made at his production company, Monkeypaw Productions. Keegan-Michael Key, who plays Wendell, also admits to being a big fan of Henry Selick. Funnily enough, the same went for Henry Selick who enjoyed the comedy duo and was eager to create an animated film with them.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Sam Zelaya is a trans boy, like his character Raul.
• Sleeper Hit: This film went through a lengthy and difficult Development Hell, and also received little to no marketing from Netflix (probably thanks in part to its Uncertain Audience and PG-13 Rating). Nevertheless, it made Top 10 Trending movies on its first weekend (near Halloween).
• Write What You Know: Selick has said in interviews that he drew a lot from his wife's work as an advocate with at-risk youth and special needs kids while approaching topics like the school-to-prison pipeline and Kat's character in general.

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