Netflix's success stories include not just original content (such as Orange is the New Black), but also revivals of established cult small screen programs, such as Arrested Development season four. Nonetheless, the upcoming Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp limited series - the title for which has been confirmed by the new teaser (see above) - is something a bit different for the service: a series spinoff for a cult comedy film.
Wet Hot American Summer, for those unfamiliar, is a movie that released back in 2001 but takes place in the year 1981, as the colorful counselors at Camp Firewood attempt to tie up their loose ends on the last day of camp for the summer. First Day of Camp, appropriately enough, picks up on the first day of the summer 1981 season... even though this series is arriving 14 years after the original movie. David Wain will be directing the limited series, based on the scripts he co-wrote with Michael Showalter.
Showalter has already said that he and Wain - who also co-penned the original Wet Hot American Summer movie with Showalter in addition to directing the film - are "not going to try and make everything make sense," when it comes to the age progression of the characters in First Day of Camp's eight-episode run. It's certainly possible the series will contain some nods to the fact that its main cast is now inexplicably fourteen years older than before... though hopefully not too many, since that joke would run its course pretty quickly.
It also sounds as though this is currently being envisioned as a one-time event series, seeing as the task of reassembling the original Wet Hot American Summer cast - Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Janeane Garofalo, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Christopher Meloni, Marguerite Moreau, Zak Orth, David Hyde Pierce, and Molly Shannon - one more time was, no doubt, difficult enough as is.
Then again, who knows; if First Day of Camp is a hit for Netflix, this might not be the last we see of Firewood and its various employees. Weirder things have happened - like, for example, this limited series.
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Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is expected to premiere on Netflix this summer.