The Sheep Detectives | Chernobyl, Succession and Game Of Thrones alumni assemble for ovine crime trailer

The Sheep Detectives trailer sees a famous flock team up to solve their shepherd’s murder, in 2026’s best elevator pitch.

The last time Patrick Stewart leant his voice talents to an original animated character, the result was 2019’s The Emoji Movie. Perhaps in an attempt to correct the record, he’s now audibly starring in something that looks like bags of fun.

Based on Leonie Swann’s bestselling 2005 novel, Three Bags Full, The Sheep Detectives stars a live-action Hugh Jackman as a shepherd fond of reading murder mysteries to his flock. But when his wooly wards find him slain before his time, the killer might find themselves on the receiving end of a whole herd of trouble.

The new film boasts a genuine ensemble cast: Jackman is joined in the real world by Nicholas Braun (Succession‘s Cousin Greg), Conleth Hill (Game Of Thrones) and Emma Thompson (2020’s Dolittle, and others), while Stewart’s dulcet tones are complimented by Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bella Ramsay and Chris O’Dowd. They all voice sheep, by the way.

Oh, and the screenplay’s written by Craig Mazin, best-known as the showrunner behind feel-good family hits Chernobyl and The Last Of Us.

What follows looks like the sort of post-Babe family animal enterprise (think Charlotte’s Web, Furry Vengeance, G-Force, et al) that they, you guessed it, just don’t make anymore. The trailer also looks to lean into the popularity of modern murder mystery, with plenty of text in what I’m going to christen “Knives Out yellow”. Personally, I couldn’t be more excited.

Though this marks Mazin’s first real foray into family comedy (his pre-TV years made his name with adult comedies like The Hangover trilogy and Scary Movie 3), director Kyle Balda (The Lorax, Minions) is well-versed with the genre in an animated space – The Sheep Detectives is his live-action directorial debut.

Check out The Sheep Detectives trailer below.