Netflix's 'Carmen Sandiego' Trailer Released

Netflix has released the official trailer for their forthcoming animated series Carmen Sandiego, [...]

Netflix has released the official trailer for their forthcoming animated series Carmen Sandiego, which centers on the early days of the notorious thief from the popular Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? franchise.

The series will star Gina Rodriguez as Carmen Sandiego, the mysterious globe-trotting thief that served as the central mystery for a series of 1980s educational computer games which helped children learn geography under the guise of tracking Carmen around the world. The games also spawned a popular television series, Where in The World Is Carmen Sandiego?, a half-hour children's game show which aired on PBS from 1991 to 1995.

Finn Wolfhard also stars as Player, Carmen's right-hand man. Fans know Wolfhard from his role in Stranger Things, and his time on that series and other projects actually led to some initial concern about taking the role, though he is thrilled he could make it happen.

"Voicing Player was cool because he provides really interesting exposition about the places and missions that Carmen gets into, but he's also the intimate voice in her ear," Wolfhard told PEOPLE. "At first, I was worried that because of my schedule the project would suffer from me recording separately from the rest of the cast."

Netflix, which has ordered 20 22-minute episodes of the new series which will debut on January 18th, will dig into Carmen's origin story a bit and show audiences how the iconic, red-clad thief became the difficult-to-apprehend enigma she is best remembered as.

The upcoming Carmen Sandiego series isn't the only project Netflix is working on for the brand, either. The series is just one part of Netflix's "all-in" approach which also includes a live-action film that will also star Rodriguez. The film, announced back in March, is described as "a standalone Carmen adventure that will embrace the beloved '90s property." That film is set to be written by Game Night scribe Mark Perez. A new line of books featuring Carmen is also set to be released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Rodriguez is producing the Carmen Sandiego movie under her I Can And I Will banner, with Kevin Misher and Caroline Fraser. The executive producer is Andy Berman of Misher Films. Berman also worked with Rodriquez on Miss Bala, an English-language adaptation of a 2011 Mexican film that comes out on Jan. 25, 2019.

Netflix has been successful with other reboots of educational programs. The platform is home to new episodes of The Magic School Bus, which stars Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon as Ms. Frizzle. Netflix also brought Bill Nye The Science Guy for Bill Nye Saves the World.

You can see the official synopsis below:

Everybody asks "WHERE is Carmen Sandiego?", but nobody asks "WHO is Carmen Sandiego?" The iconic woman in red returns for new international capers and a peek into her past. Featuring Gina Rodriguez as Carmen and Finn Wolfhard as Player, Carmen Sandiego infiltrates Netflix on January 18!

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