I’ve so extremely excited about Netflix's upcoming Wet Hot American Summer prequel series that I’ve already filled up two gournals writing about it. Michael Showalter, the film’s co-writer (and founding member of the stellar sketch group/series The State), recently gave fans more to think about as far as how the Wet Hot series is going to pan out, with all of the stars being nearly 15 years older. And guess what? The entire season is going to take place on the first day of camp! Also, they’re thinking about making a State movie! Exclamations all around!
Speaking with Crave Online about David Wain’s upcoming rom-com spoof They Came Together, Showalter doesn’t shy away from talking details about the prequel series, at least what details there are. He says no scripts have been written yet, but there’s an outline that involves all of these amazing characters arriving at camp for the first day of the 1981 summer season, with potential flashbacks sprinkled throughout.
The most complicated aspect of this project is pulling the massive cast back together, as most of them have gone on to even bigger careers, including Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd. But there are no worries about anyone backing out, as Showalter says, “we wouldn’t have wanted to do it if we couldn’t get everybody. So we did our due diligence before the fact and everyone wants to do it.” Everyone! I wonder if that means H. Jon Benjamin will be back as everybody’s favorite auto-fellating can of veg.
Lesser comedians might feel hampered by the age factor, but Showalter says they’re “not going to try to make everything make sense,” and while the series will probably revolve around a central plot, he says it’s “more just an opportunity to bring the cast back together and tell more stories about these camp kids.” There aren’t that many projects out there that would be as forgiving with such loose formatting, but Wet Hot American Summer is perfect for it. The careers of Michael Ian Black, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio and A.D. Miles (among others) are filled with silly movies and series that spin reality around on its head.
And you know what else has the potential to split reality in two? The State as a movie. While his words are in no way a confirmation that anyone is actually putting the project together, Showalter says the idea is floating around.
The State has talked about doing our Life of Brian, that kind of a thing. We would get together and make our own State movie, and that’s something I have always wanted to do, and I think we all have wanted to do it, but it’s just very hard to get everyone together to do it.”
The only thing stopping Wet Hot American Summer right now is scheduling, so get your paperclips and soot together as we anticipate this slow-moving trek towards summer freedom!
