A Series of Unfortunate Events tells the story of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, three children who are forced to resist Count Olaf’s attempts to steal their family fortune after the untimely death of their parents. Over the course of 13 novels, the orphans delve into a mystery that links their family with Olaf.
“If you are interested in stories with happy endings, that story is streaming elsewhere,” Snicket states at the beginning of the trailer. “I would advise all our viewers to watch something more pleasant instead.”
Warburton’s presence in the trailer seems to confirm that we’ll actually see Snicket on screen in this adaptation, whereas in the 2004 film, Jude Law’s performance as the character was limited to spoken narration. The new footage also confirms exactly which books from the series will be covered in the first season of the Netflix show.
It stands to reason that the first novel, The Bad Beginning, will be adapted for the show, given that it introduces the Baudelaire children and their nemesis Count Olaf. However, we also see Olaf’s Stephano disguise from The Reptile Room, Aunt Josephine from The Wide Window, and the mill from The Miserable Mill.
Each book will seemingly be adapted across two episodes of the show. This might seem like cause for concern, but given that each novel clocks in at around 200 pages, there should be plenty of time to do these stories justice in this format.
All eight episodes of the first season of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events will be available on Netflix from January 13, 2017.
