Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp Trailer Introduces Jon Hamm

By  · Published on July 2nd, 2015

Everybody is in this. Not only have all of the main cast members of Wet Hot American Summer (even Bradley Cooper) returned for the new Netflix prequel series, which takes place mere weeks before the original 2001 comedy, but there are guest stars galore. Jason Schwartzman is the most prominently represented, as far as the new characters go. He and Kristen Wiig are both listed among the familiar names meaning they may be series regulars.

Also in that bunch is an extra credit for returning star and co-writer Michael Showalter as Ronald Reagan, which I guess makes Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and the second season of Fargo (which will feature Bruce Campbell as Reagan) have something in common.

The additional newbies include Chris Pine, Michael Cera, Jordan Peele, Josh Charles, Weird Al, Lake Bell, Judah Friedlander, Michaela Watkins (who doesn’t get an on screen credit even after making a notable appearance in the above trailer), John Slattery and his Mad Men co-star Jon Hamm, who will be making an introductory breakthrough performance, in a fight scene against Christopher Meloni.

That may seem like too many people when combined with Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Ken Marino, Amy Poehler, Cooper and the others reprising their roles, but the show is going to be eight episodes, each a half-hour in length, so there’s plenty of room. The series is more than twice the length of the original movie, and that movie packed a lot on its own.

Fans of the movie will be glad to see Rudd’s Andy still not giving a fuck and appreciate the expository joke in the trailer about how most of these actors are playing 17 year olds, despite all of them having aged nearly that many years since the original’s release. They may even appreciate that Nina Hellman is still getting the most awful feminine-product-based lines.

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp hits Netflix in full on July 31st.

Also check out the crowded new poster:

Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.