David Farnor | On 26, Jan 2019

Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp is venturing into virtual reality territory, joining the cast of Wolves in the Walls.

The animated series, based on Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s children’s book of the same name, is made by Fable and follows 8-year old Lucy, whose imagination proves to be a reality. Using VR, only viewers can help Lucy discover what’s truly hiding inside the walls of her house. Conceptualised by the Emmy-Award winning team that brought you Henry, and choreographed by New York’s critically acclaimed immersive theatre company, Third Rail projects, this immersive projects: asks; what would it be like to interact, have a relationship, and go on a quest with a character inside a VR movie?

Directed by Pete Billington and produced by Jessica Yaffa Shamash, the three-part animation premiered its first chapter at Sundance 2018. Now, as Sundance 2019 begins, Fable has announced that Chapter 2 will premiere in April – and will have a familiar voice joining its cast, in the form of Scnapp, best known for playing Will Byers in Netflix’s hit sci-fi series, Stranger Things. He will voice the brother of Lucy.

“We believe that Noah Schnapp brings a special quality to the brother role,” Billington told Variety. “As soon as he read his first line, we were smitten. We love him in Stranger Things and can’t wait for audiences to hear his performance in Wolves in the Walls.”

The company is also hard at work on what it dubs ‘virtual beings’, AI-powered characters can respond to viewers within VR experiences, hiring multiple machine-learning experts to develop the technology – which will be showcased in Whispers in the Night, a spin-off of Wolves in the Walls that will allow users to have conversations with Lucy.

“With Whispers, we are exploring this idea of memory,” creative director Jessica Shamash explained to Variety.

“She doesn’t reset and forget everything,” added Billington.

That will premiere this summer, but fans wanting to stream Wolves in the Walls at home will probably have to keep waiting until 2020, when the third and final part is likely to be completed. Then, it will be released for home viewing in the Oculus store. Until then, Montreal’s Phi Center is the only public venue for Chapter 1.

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