Meet The Munsters! The First Trailer For Rob Zombie’s The Munsters Movie Reboot Has Arrived

Rob Zombie is celebrating Halloween early by dropping a little treat into the laps of Munsters fans everywhere. Today, the filmmaker and rocker shared the first teaser of his movie reboot of The Munsters, a popular sitcom from the ‘60s that centered around a family of monsters. The film is set to be released this fall, and Rob Zombie’s new trailer and behind-the-scene teasers suggest he’s keeping to the sitcom’s original aesthetic. So here’s what we know about The Munsters movie reboot so far:

Meet the Munsters!

Rob Zombie gave fans a peek into his Munsters movie reboot last October when he introduced three of the film’s central cast members on Instagram. “Since Halloween is rapidly approaching I thought it was the perfect time to MEET THE MUNSTERS!,” Rob Zombie said when sharing a photo of the actors he’d cast as Herman, Lily, and Grandpa Munster sitting in front of The Munster family’s iconic home on Instagram. “Direct from the set in good old Hungary, I present Herman, Lily, and The Count sitting in front of the newly completed 1313 Mockingbird Lane.”

Westworld alum Jeff Daniels Phillips will star as Herman Munster while Rob Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon Zombie has been cast as Lily Munster. Dan Roebuck will play Grandpa Munster — also known as The Count. It has not yet been revealed who has been cast in the role of Eddie Munster, the werewolf child of Herman and Lily, or Marilyn Munster, the “plain” and “normal-looking” niece of Lily Munster.

Universal Studios released a new teaser.

On June 8, 2022, Universal Studios released a teaser of The Munsters, and it looks so creepy! It is in black and white at first and set to the original The Munsters theme song by Jack Marshall. All the characters are introduced, with Herman Munster breaking through the front door, Lily Munster walking through the Herman-sized hole and blowing a kiss, and Grandpa Munster walking in with a shovel. Afterward, the trailer transforms to “in living color,” featuring the characters in full color sitting on a couch together. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Grandpa says, “Well, now what?” It’s going to be amazing!

In a June 8 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rob Zombie opened up about his decision to make the film in color. "I knew that if I went in and demanded 'This movie's going to be in black and white or forget it!' we would not be talking about The Munsters right now, because it would have never happened,” he told EW. “I guaran-f---ing-tee it.”

However, he did try to make the color look unique. “But what I did do is I made the colors sort of hyper-real,” he added. “I noticed when the actors were in their makeup and they were just walking around, getting lunch or whatever, they looked like cartoon characters come to life. They were just so insanely colorful. I was like, I have to light the movie in the same fashion. It really seemed at all times like a live action cartoon, which was really exciting."

What do we know about the film so far?

Rob Zombie surprised fans in June when he announced he would direct and help write a reboot of The Munsters for Universal Studios. The move to direct a reboot of a popular family-friendly sitcom is something of a departure for the filmmaker, whose directorial credits include a number of gruesome horror flicks such as Halloween, Halloween II, House of 1,000 Corpses, and The Devil’s Rejects. However, Rob Zombie has said the project was something he’d “been chasing for 20 years.”

Since announcing the project, Rob Zombie has been hard at work rebuilding The Munster’s iconic home as well as the idyllic suburban neighborhood it resides in. “1313 [Mockingbird Lane] is looking good,” the filmmaker wrote when sharing teasers of the set build over Instagram in late September. “Lots of work left to do, but it is getting there! Takes a lot of work to build an entire neighborhood.”

Rob Zombie has said his film will make fans of the original happy. "Yeah, it's 100 percent in the spirit of the show," he told EW on June 8. "I didn't want it to be different. I wanted to totally retain the vibe that it had in the '60s."

One thing Rob Zombie hasn’t revealed, however, is what fans can expect as far as plot. CBS’ The Munsters centered around a Transylvanian-American family of decidedly kindhearted and wholesome monsters who, although odd-looking, consider themselves the epitome of your average suburban family. It featured Fred Gwynne as Herman, a sort of Frankenstein's monster, and Yvonne De Carlo and Al Lewis as Lily and Grandpa, both vampires. While it’s still unclear exactly what hijinks the Munsters will get up to in Rob Zombie’s reboot, fans can rest easy knowing these central details haven’t been changed.

Will Rob Zombie’s The Munsters be appropriate for kids?

Given his history directing horror films, it’s unsurprising that many parents are wondering if Rob Zombie’s interpretation of The Munsters will be appropriate for children. When it aired in 1964, CBS’ sitcom was rated PG-13, making it fairly family-friendly. According to the film’s first trailer, Rob Zombie’s reboot of The Munsters is rated PG, making it appropriate for most kids.

What do we know about the film’s release date?

While no release date has been released — yet — Collider has reported Rob Zombie’s movie reboot of The Munsters will reportedly receive both a theatrical release and a streaming release on Peacock. The outlet has speculated that it will have a Halloween 2022 release date, which makes sense given the nature of the film. EW has confirmed The Munsters will be released sometime this fall, so it’s very likely fans will get to see it by Halloween. Fingers crossed!