If you’re a fan of Neil Patrick Harris from the much-loved comedy show How I Met Your Mother, you’ll probably know that he is playing Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events.
The most recent trailer of the show that will air on Netflix in January gives us a peek into this adaptation. The show, which is based on the original books by Lemony Snicket, will have eight episodes. However, we do not yet know how many of the books it will feature.
In the trailer we see the Baudelaire orphans (Klaus, Violet, and Sunny) arrive at Count Olaf’s mysterious and dark home. It is the first place that the children have been sent to after the death of their parents, but it seems Count Olaf has his eye on a fortune, not the children.
During the one-minute video, there are voices describing him as a “thief,” a “murderer” and a “villain” – all which back up the children’s suspicions of him doing all that he can to make sure he can get his hands on their inheritance.
The children immediately realize that there’s something not quite right about their new guardian. It’s clear that this is no match when they describe him as “horrible” and “awful.”
“You haven’t the faintest idea,” is all Count Olaf had to say in response. His flicked-back hair, unibrow, and extra long nose point him towards being the perfect criminal.
Eyes are heavily symbolic in this snippet, starting with Olaf looking through the door lens to see who is there, suggesting he doesn’t want any unwanted visitors. Second is the map with an eye shape in the middle, third is the tattoo on his ankle, and the final one is the telescope that he uses to look across into another window.
Patrick Warburton will play Lemony Snicket, while Malina Weissman has been cast as Violet Baudelaire and Louis Hynes as Klaus.
There’s no doubt that this adaptation could resemble the 2004 film in some ways. However, so far, so good. You’d hardly even recognize Neil Patrick Harris with the amount of make-up and artwork that has gone into this character – the main outlining feature of the actor himself is his distinctive voice. He certainly looks the part of the creepy villain.
When will season 1 of A Series of Unfortunate Events come to Netflix?
The most important part of the trailer is the date reveal at the end which tells us we’ll be getting all episodes on January 13th, 2017. This means Netflix won’t be splitting up the series like they’ve done with Black Mirror, The Get Down and The Ranch.
So the main question is – are you afraid?
