Writer/director Rob Zombie’s feature update of the classic sitcom The Munsters is coming to us from Universal 1440 Entertainment, which is the direct-to-video division of Universal Pictures, so we’ve known for a while that The Munsters was probably going to bypass a theatrical release. A release through Universal’s streaming service Peacock seemed like a strong possibility… but that’s not where The Munsters is going. Zombie has taken to social media to confirm that the movie is going to be released through the Netflix streaming service! The trailer embedded at the top of this article promises that The Munsters will be released sometime in September on Netflix.
The Munsters ran for two seasons, from September 1964 to May 1966, and consisted of 70 episodes. (You can buy the complete series at THIS LINK.) The show
starred Fred Gwynne as Frankenstein’s monster and head-of-the-household Herman Munster; Yvonne De Carlo as his wife Lily Munster; Al Lewis as Lily’s father, Grandpa, the somewhat over-the-hill vampire Count Dracula who longs for the “good old days” in Transylvania; Beverley Owen (later replaced by Pat Priest) as their teenage niece Marilyn Munster, who was attractive by conventional standards but the “ugly duckling” of the family; and Butch Patrick as their werewolfish son Eddie Munster.
Zombie’s The Munsters stars Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman, Sheri Moon Zombie as Lily, Daniel Roebuck as The Count, Richard Brake as mad scientist Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang, Catherine Schell as a gypsy woman named Zoya Krupp, Jorge Garcia as Herman’s friend Floop, Tomas Boykin as Lily’s werewolf brother Lester, Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson as realtor Barbara Carr, Dee Wallace as the voice of Good Morning Transylvania, and Sylvester McCoy as Igor, the loyal servant to the Munsters. Jeremy Wheeling, Roderick Hill, and Mark Griffith are also in there are Mr. Gateman, Mr. Goodbury, and Mr. Graves, the owners of the Gateman, Goodbury, and Graves Funeral Home. Sitcom cast member Pat Priest is in there, and her sitcom co-star Butch Patrick is playing The Tin Can Man.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Zombie said his movie The Munsters is
100 percent in the spirit of the show. I didn’t want it to be different. I wanted to totally retain the vibe that it had in the ’60s.”
His commitment to retaining the spirit of the show is evident in the film’s PG rating for “macabre and suggestive material, scary images and language”.
Will you be watching Rob Zombie’s The Munsters on Netflix? Let us know by leaving a comment below.