Rob Zombie Shares First Look at The Munsters Cast

By Russ Burlingame

Rocker and filmmaker Rob Zombie took to Instagram this morning to share a first look at the cast of The Munsters. In the reboot film, Zombie will direct his wife, Sherri Moon Zombie, along with frequent collaborators Jeff Daniel Phillips and Daniel Roebuck. The trio are here in the first shot, as Lilly Munster, Herman Munster, and "The Count" (seemingly an updated take on Grandpa Munster). The roles were originated in a 1960s TV series by Yvonne De Carlo, Fred Gwynne, and Al Lewis, with Butch Patrick and (depending on the season) Pat Priest or Beverley Owen as Eddie and Marilyn Munster.

The original The Munsters series ran from 1964-1966. From 1988 until 1991, it was followed up by The Munsters Today, and in 2012, Pushing Daisies and Hannibal producer Bryan Fuller tried to relaunch it again as Mockingbird Lane. The pilot wasn't picked up by NBC, but given the popularity of the Munsters brand and some of the actors involved, they opted to run it as a Halloween special and frame it as a one-off TV movie instead.

You can see the photo below.

Zombie's take on The Munsters is the first full length feature adaptation of the property, which achieved higher first-run ratings than the similarly-themed The Addams Family, but ultimately did not find the same level of post-broadcast success that Addams did. A second animated The Addams Family -- the brand's fourth theatrical film and fifth feature overall (there was a TV movie called Addams Family Reunion in 1998). The Munsters centers on a family of good-natured monsters who move to an ordinary neighborhood and comically struggle to coexist with everyday humans. The series has had a life that has long outlasted its original broadcast, since it became a fan-favorite in syndication in the '80s and continues to be broadcast to this day. 

Zombie's history of making movies that are hard-R, deeply disturbing horror movies centering on violent rednecks makes him a curious choice for what appears to be a fairly faithful retelling of The Munsters so far. Some fans have worried that he will make it the "Rob Zombie version" of The Munsters, as he did with Halloween, but at face value, the images released so far suggest he plans on playing it fairly straight.

The Munsters is likely to be released in theaters and on Peacock next year. There is no clear release date yet.

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