In addition to the shocking news that The Witches is skipping theaters and going straight to HBO Max this month, the first trailer for the highly anticipated new film has now been released online. Directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future), this new adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic takes place in 1960s Alabama and follows a young boy (Jahzir Bruno) and his grandmother as they encounter a coven of witches while on vacation. They must subsequently team up to stop the witches from enacting their evil plan of turning all children into mice, which is complicated by the fact that the young boy himself gets turned into a mouse.

Octavia Spencer plays the grandmother and Anne Hathaway plays the Grand High Witch in this new adaptation, which also stars Stanley Tucci as Mr. Stringer and Chris Rock as the narrator.

Unlike director Nicolas Roeg’s nightmare-inducing 1990 adaptation, this trailer makes clear that Zemeckis’ take on The Witches is very much a family film. It’s rated PG, and there’s a much lighter tone than the extremely dark take on the material that made the first adaptation so striking. Zemeckis is also clearly toying once again with blending human actors and cutting-edge technology, as he’s been doing pretty much his entire career from Back to the Future to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to his string of motion-capture films like The Polar Express.

Will all of this add up to a good movie? That much is unclear, but there’s certainly a ton of talent in front of and behind the camera – the screenplay is credited to Zemeckis, Kenya Barris (black-ish), and Guillermo del Toro, and Alfonso Cuaron (Roma) is onboard as a producer.

Check out the new Witches movie trailer below followed by some first-look images. The film also stars Kristin Chenoweth and premieres exclusively in the U.S. on the streaming service HBO Max on October 22nd.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Witches:

Based on the timeless story, the reimagined “Roald Dahl’s The Witches’ is flying into your homes, premiering exclusively in the U.S. on HBO Max on October 22.  Robert Zemeckis, the Oscar-winning director and master storyteller (“Forrest Gump”, “The Polar Express” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy) brings a fresh sense of humor along with warmth and the unexpected to what is sure to be a Halloween favorite! It’s a wickedly funny and heartwarming tale about a young boy who stumbles upon a secret coven of witches and, with the help of his loving grandmother, must try to stop their evil plan to turn all the world’s children into mice. “Roald Dahl’s The Witches” is the film the whole family can enjoy together this Halloween season.

 

The incredible cast includes powerhouse performances by Anne Hathaway as the sly, menacing Grand High Witch and Octavia Spencer as the tough but loving grandmother who will fight her to the end. Stanley Tucci is the hotel manager unwittingly hosting the witches’ convention; Kristin Chenoweth lends her familiar voice and energy to the action; and the heart of the film is the young boy, played by Jahzir Bruno [adult narration by Chris Rock], who becomes a brave but unlikely hero by teaming with his friends and grandma to stop the witches’ evil plan. Director/producer/co-writer Robert Zemeckis is joined by a world-class team of filmmakers, including Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Kenya Barris.