Andy Serkis & Thomas Brodie-Sangster to star in Wes Ball’s Mouse Guard

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's been well over a year since it was first announced that THE MAZE RUNNER's Wes Ball was developing an adaptation of David Peterson's "Mouse Guard" series, and now we finally have word on who will be starring in the film. THR has reported that Andy Serkis (MOWGLI) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Godless) have joined the cast of the film which has been described as a sort of Game of Thrones with mice.

The comic series takes place in a world of sentient mice who live in the medieval era and revolves around the Mouse Guard, a brotherhood of mice who have sworn to protect the common mouse against threats of predator, weather, and wilderness. Thomas Brodie-Sangster is set to play Lieam, one of the newest and youngest members of the Mouse Guard who will be called upon to prove his bravery. Brodie-Sangster has worked with Wes Ball before as he played Newt throughout the MAZE RUNNER trilogy. Andy Serkis will play Midnight, the Mouse Guard's blacksmith who turns against it. MOUSE GUARD will be shot using motion-capture with WETA providing the digital effects and production is expected to kick off in May.

While speaking with Coming Soon last year, Wes Ball explained that he wants to fully explore the harsh world of the "Mouse Guard" comics while also appealling to all ages.

The trick with this one is we have to thread that needle with tone. I’m not interested in doing a DreamWorks or Pixar-type movie, I’m interested in doing something closer to Planet of the Apes where you’re really gonna nail characters and show the harsh reality of what they live in. It’s gonna be a little bit of both, probably, but at the same time because of the cost I need as big an audience as possible. So I want 10-year olds to see this as much as 40 and 50-year olds, you know? That’s the needle we have to thread, but for me personally… the way Star Wars appealed to me as a kid growing up hit that tone in a weird way. It appealed to the kid in everybody but still took itself seriously. That’s really exciting to me, that kind of film, that kind of target, but obviously set in this really harsh world of mice and swords.

I'm mostly unfamiliar with the "Mouse Guard" series, but done right, it could be something visually spectacular. Mice with swords? Count me in.