Wendell & Wild director, Henry Selick, says that Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele riffed for hours while on the set of their new film. Key and Peele began their partnership on the hit sketch comedy television show Mad TV. Originally cast against each other, Fox decided to hire them both due to their great chemistry. The duo went on to create their own sketch comedy series for Comedy Central, the massively popular Key & Peele. The comedy partners have reunited once again for their new film, Wendell & Wild.
Selick returns to children's horror for his new stop-motion animated feature film, Wendell & Wild, a genre he perfected with critically-acclaimed movies such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. Key and Peele star as Wendell and Wild respectively, two frightening demon brothers who seek out a 13-year-old girl named Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross) after they find out she's a Hell Maiden who can summon demons to the Land of the Living. Wendell and Wild hatch their plans to get Kat to free them from their prison fixed to the stomach of the giant 300-foot-tall demon, Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames). Rounding out the cast of the animated film is Everything Everywhere All at Once's James Hong as Father Bests, Wakanda Forever's Angela Bassett as Sister Helley, and Resident Evil's Tamara Smart as Siobhan.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Selick praises both Key and Peele for their past work and improvisational skills while on set of Wendell & Wild. According to the director, the duo were allowed to riff in the recording studio, calling their sessions "magic." Read what Selick said below.
"I fell in love with their comedy when they had their own show on Comedy Central. I'd actually seen them as bit players on Mad TV earlier, but they hadn't gotten a chance to shine. But you know, working with those guys, it's like, you do your best to create something for them to stand on. But then you get into the sessions, and you've got to let them go and improvise. And it's just wonderful. It's magic. I mean, I've got hours of material of them just riffing. And they hadn't worked together in a while, and they got right in tune in 20 minutes. I feel really privileged to you know, I would, I would just give them a lot of room, and then sometimes rein them in. But, man, they're so great together. It's just phenomenal."
Selick noted that the two hadn't worked together in a significant way for years yet somehow got right in rhythm with one another with their roles in Wendell & Wild. With much of the duo's careers working together, it is no wonder the two were able to get back into step with each other's comedy. After over a decade of honing their craft together and feeding off the other's creative energy, it makes sense that Key and Peele would fall in sync in the recording booth.
The pair also recently performed together for the 2019 Pixar animated hit Toy Story 4, as Ducky and Bunny respectively. There, the two were allowed to improvise a portion of their lines and impromptu songs. Although their parts were small in the movie, recording their lines at least a year prior to release, Toy Story 4 allowed Key and Peele to stretch their improv muscles in a dry run for their leading roles in the new Selick stop-motion animated film. Audiences can see the results of their hours-long riffing sessions when Wendell & Wild lands on Netflix on October 28.