Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park has explained why bird-brained villain Feathers McGraw finally returns to the stop motion series three decades after his debut in 1993's The Wrong Trousers.
"He wasn't part of the first idea, to be honest," Wallace and Gromit creator and Vengeance Most Fowl co-director Park tells 12DOVE of the rubber-glove-wearing stick-up artist who infamously made his bow as Wallace's nefarious lodger.
"We started writing, in the early days, a story about Wallace inventing a smart gnome – something that could help Gromit out in the garden. It was great fun, but working with [writer] Mark Burton and [co-director Merlin Crossingham], it was a story that was just lacking something," Park says.
"We needed something more villainous, a villain with a strong motivation. Then it all started to become apparent. People have been asking about 'will he return?' for years. It was really our own decision."
Merlin Crossingham adds, "It was a gift. It opened up all sorts of possibilities that we were struggling with. He was the key that unlocked all that."
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl sees Feathers McGraw emerging from the shadows to pull the strings on Wallace's latest invention – a smart gnome that "develops a mind of its own."
As per the film's synopsis, "When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces."
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Christmas Day at 6:10pm and on Netflix in other regions on January 3, 2025.
