‘Sesame Street’ Movie Gets 2021 Release Date

The sunny days sweepin’ the clouds away on Sesame Street are headed to the big screen. Warner Bros. announced a live-action movie for the beloved children’s program is headed to theaters in 2021.

Jonathan Krisel, director and co-creator of Portlandia, is set to helm the film which will be based on the characters in the long-running series created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrissett. Shawn Levy is producing along with Michael Aguilar while Mike Rosolio and Chris Galletta have written draft scripts. Sesame Workshop, which owns the rights to the show, is also involved. It is set to hit theaters January 15, 2021 according to Deadline.

Sesame Street celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The children’s educational series premiered in 1969 with a mix of live-action characters as well as animation and puppets. Of those puppets are some of Jim Henson’s most beloved creations: Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, and Cookie Monster. Some of Henson’s other beloved characters, such as Kermit the Frog, appeared on the series as well.

Outside of the film’s release date, not much else is known about the Sesame Street film. A report from December indicated that Anne Hathaway had been offered a starring role in the film as a character allegedly named Sally, a callback to the girl who appeared in Sesame Street’s very first episode. That report also indicated that Hathaway was weighing her schedule situation as she had also been offered a role in Robert Zemeckis’ The Witches adaptation, with Variety confirming in January that Hathaway had signed on as the menacing Grand High Witch in that film.

This upcoming movie will mark the third theatrical Sesame Street-related movie. The first was 1985’s Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, a musical road-comedy film which saw Big Bird relocated by a bird organization only Bird to run away to return to Sesame Street, getting into many adventures along the way. The second was 1999’s The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland which sees the loveable red Muppet on a journey through Oscar the Grouch’s world — Grouchland — when he attempts to retrieve his discarded blanket.

In addition to the release date for Sesame Street, Warner Bros. also announced an April 16, 2021 debut for its Tom and Jerry upcoming film combining live-action and animated elements.

Are you excited that the Sesame Street movie has a release date? Let us know in the comments below.