‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’ Hatches First Teaser Trailer: Watch

If you thought the tale of the freedom-loving chickens of Tweedy's Farm was over, the yolk's on you.

The teaser trailer to Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is here, and fans of stop-motion British farm animals (of which there are many!) have much to cluck about. It is the sequel to Aardman Animations' original Chicken Run from 2000, and the first feature film from the group since 2019's A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.

The new movie will make its debut at the London Film Festival in mid-October, then will stream on Netflix on Dec. 15. Many of the classic characters are back, but some are voiced by new performers. Thandiwe Newton, for example, is in as the lead bird Ginger, subbing for Julia Sawalha; and Zachary Levi is voicing the dashing circus rooster Rocky Rhodes in lieu of Mel Gibson. Also, Romesh Ranganathan is playing Nick the rat, previously voiced by Timothy Spall; and Peter Serafinowicz is part of the show as a new character with the wonderfully English name of Reginald Smith.

Miranda Richardson, however, is back as the evil Mrs. Tweedy, and Jane Horrocks and Imelda Staunton have reprised their roles as Babs and Bunty, the dumb chicken and the cynical chicken, respectively.

The new film, directed by ParaNorman's Sam Fell and written by Karey Kirkpatrick, John O'Farrell and Rachel Tunnard, posits a chicken farm built like a 007 villain's lair, complete with laser-shooting robo-ducks. More importantly, the teaser includes a shot where everyone is lined up and walks directly toward the camera in slow motion. 

The original Chicken Run grossed $228 million at the worldwide box office in 2000, to which we all say "that's a lot of chicken feed!" It won the Best Animated Feature award from the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review. It did not win any Oscars because they didn't launch their animation category until the following year. Clearly Aardman's lack-of-trophy was the egg-sact motivation that the organization needed.