Wendell & Wild already looks like an animation highlight of the year. It is the first film from Henry Selick in over a decade, following up his work on Coraline with a story about another young woman and her encounters with the supernatural. Selick is also adding to his list of impressive collaborators with the film, as Jordan Peele serves as a producer and co-writer on the project, hinting at how the film has evolved to evoke both filmmaker's best impulses and tonal benchmarks.

Wendell & Wild was announced in 2021. A collaboration between Selick, Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, it is the first film by Selick since 2009's Coraline. Selick remains one of the most prominent stop-motion filmmakers of the modern era, with Coraline (and his previous works, including The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach) juggling gothic worlds and scary threats with an unapologetically silly and enthusiastic love for the bizarre and optimistic.

RELATED: Jamie Foxx Combines Vampire Hunting with John Wick Fights in First Day Shift Footage

Wendell & Wild Henry Selick 1

The first clip for Wendell & Wild (released as part of Netflix Geek Week) speaks to that established aesthetic of Selick's past work, with a cutely gruesome boombox establishing the tone of the film even without a single character on screen. The clip seems to focus on Kat (Lyric Ross), who previous announcements suggested would be the lead character of the film, moving through a school at night to a classroom. There, she finds an eerie green glow coming from a teacher's desk. Prying it open, she discovers Bear-zabub, an apparent evil teddy bear, and a great hint that tonally, Wendell & Wild will fit right at home alongside Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Selick's works have proven instantly memorable and incredibly popular, especially The Nightmare Before Christmas (which has become a cultural touchstone). Wendell & Wild is also just the latest collaboration for Selick, whose past films have adapted the concepts, characters and stories of Tim Burton, Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman. It's clear he works well with others, refining their stories through his unique stop-motion style. Notably, Peele and Key were approached by Selick, according to the director, who'd been developing the story for years.

RELATED: Marvel's Blade Reboot Reportedly Gets A Working Title And Filming Start Window

Peele was so impressed that he and Key stepped into larger roles in the production, with Peele even co-writing the film. Considering that films like Get Out, Us and the upcoming Nope have turned Peele into one of the film industry's most exciting horror filmmakers, a collaboration between him and someone as innately horror-tinted as Selick is an exciting one. Key and Peele also have plenty of comedic experience, especially with their Comedy Central sketch series Key & Peele -- with the pair voicing plenty of characters in animation before, too. This all suggests a solid melding of style and tone for Wendell & Wild. It's hard to consider any filmmaker whose collaboration with Selick makes more sense than Peele, and his involvement alongside Key as performers in the film should serve as a bit of a comic reunion for the pair (as Peele has shifted more behind-the-camera and largely left on-screen acting behind).

Wendell & Wild clearly seems to have a Coraline vibe, featuring a young girl seemingly encountering mystical threats. But the presence of Peele and Key as the titular demons hints that the finished product might be something sillier than scary. That's not a bad thing, and that doesn't mean there won't be any scares -- with both Selick and Peele having plenty of experience shifting suddenly from comedy to horror. A collaboration between the two is potentially a dream come true for fans of both and could easily become one of the year's best Halloween movies.

Wendell & Wild is set to debut on Netflix Oct. 2022.