[UPDATE] Representatives from Laika contacted ComicBook.com and confirmed that Wildwood is still on the release slate, and is currently eyeing a release date sometime in 2026. You can read the full article about the release plans HERE. We’ve added this editorial note for clarification, but have otherwise left the original featured article as originally written below.
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Stop-motion animation is an arduous process involving animators, small figurines/marionettes, richly detailed sets, and laboriously making the unreal real. That’s why the animation wizards at Laika don’t crank out a new movie every year. Instead, the folks behind Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings (among other features) put quality over quantity when it comes to other filmography. This animation outfit, led by Travis Knight, has spent years working hard on its latest animated feature, Wildwood (also helmed by Knight).
Last August, the theatrical re-release of Coraline was accompanied by a tease for Wildwood announcing a 2025 release date for the feature. It was a high-profile marketing maneuver that put the next Laika motion picture on countless people’s radars. However, in the following eight months, further updates on Wildwood’s release have been nonexistent. Where exactly has the latest Laika movie gone? And will it ever see the light of day?
The Corporate Reasons for Wildwood’s Disappearance
Most American animation companies have big corporate owners. Pixar is under Disney ownership. DreamWorks Animation belongs to Universal. The list goes on and on. However, independent animation studios do exist and Laika is part of that rare breed. Though the company is co-owned by Nike, Inc. co-founder Phil Knight, Wildwood doesn’t belong to a major or indie American movie studio. That alone suggests why Wildwood has struggled to get a concrete release date or distribution plans: there isn’t a studio that’s already supposed to release it to audiences, like Pixar or Illumination films.
While Focus Features handled the first four Laika titles, Laika secured Annapurna/United Artists Releasing distribution for 2019’s Missing Link. The Coraline re-releases, meanwhile, have been distributed by Fathom Entertainment, a sign that Laika, not Focus Features, is now controlling that feature. Even with Laika’s esteemed pedigree, it’s unquestionably difficult for any movie, including costly independent endeavors like Wildwood, to get picked up by studios. The current indie movie landscape is in a dire state that’s led to recent titles like Ponyboi, Hundreds of Beavers, A Nice Indian Boy, No Other Land, and others to self-distribute.
These dire conditions alone make it clear why Wildwood struggled to get any release plans. Laika needs a major distributor to get this costly project out to the masses, yet even indie labels like A24 or Neon are only sparingly acquiring outside projects these days. The middling box office track record of the last two Laika films (Kubo and Link) is also undoubtedly making it harder to secure release plans for Wildwood. Sure, Coraline is a license to print money, but potential Wildwood distributors might see that as an exception, not the rule. In a marketplace dominated by timidity, a stop-motion animated epic like Wildwood is unlikely to secure much-needed distribution.
[RELATED: LAIKA Teaming Up With Spider-Verse’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller for First Live-Action Movie]
Wildwood Has Vanished, Yet It Appears To Be Finished
Even with these corporate woes breathing down Wildwood’s neck, it’s still puzzling how much this feature has fallen off people’s radar. It’s especially bizarre given how PG-rated animated films have become reliable box office moneymakers in the last two years. Even with titles like The Wild Robot, Migration, and Dog Man proving that audiences will show up to animated family movies that aren’t just sequels, though, there’s been absolutely no rumblings or even rumors about a Wildwood release date, let alone more concrete details about when audiences can see this feature.
What makes the entire Wildwood predicament extra bizarre is that, by all indicators, the movie appears to be finished. This has never been officially confirmed or announced, however, Wildwood director Travis Knight has moved on to helming Masters of the Universe for Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel. Given how intensive the process is for making a stop-motion animated movie, it’s doubtful Knight would be juggling both of these projects. More likely, Wildwood (which started “shooting” in September 2021) finally finished in 2025’s earliest days, which finally freed up Knight to take on another live-action directing assignment.
Even though all signs point to Wildwood finally being finished, that hasn’t stopped the film from disappearing. Tragically, this outcome seems to be a symptom of larger problems plaguing the entire indie cinema sphere. Not even Laika artists are exempt from such turmoil. However, fans of this animation label shouldn’t lose hope of ever seeing Wildwood. If Coyote vs. Acme could secure a theatrical release after enduring way more extreme duress, then surely Wildwood will eventually hit theaters.
Coraline is available for rental or purchase from digital retailers, Wildwood will hit theaters on an unspecified 2025 date.
