For fans of David Wain and Michael Showalter, “Wet Hot American Summer” remains the peak of their collaborative powers, and one they’ve long been aching for the duo to return to. And while there was chatter a couple of years ago about a prequel, not much seemed to come of it. Until today.
Variety reports that Netflix will be the home to a 10-episode prequel series, one that will actually bring the former cast members to play high school-age versions of the characters. And yes, this is the same plan Wain and Showalter had previously talked about. “The prequel would be the same summer so they would be 20 years [too] old for the part…So it would be 40 year olds playing 16 year olds,” Showalter said in 2012. But getting this made will an effort on the scale of … well, making another season of “Arrested Development.”
The 2001 movie featured a plethora of people who went on to much bigger things and busier schedules— Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks, Ken Marino, Molly Shannon, Christopher Meloni, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Lo Truglio and more—and the current plans call for everyone to only shoot a few days, since not all the characters will be in each episode. Does that format sound familiar to anyone?
Whether or not the magic can be rekindled over a decade later remains to been (“Arrested Development” showed it’s really not easy) but we’re sure there are plenty of folks who will tune in to see if David Wain and co. can pull it off.