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Jul 27, 2015 By Christopher Roberts Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp

All this week we’ll be posting interviews with various cast members (as well as the creators) of Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, which will start streaming on Netflix this Friday. Today we have posted interviews with co-creator/director/actor David Wain and actress Lake Bell. Throughout the week we will also be posting interviews with Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Marguerite Moreau, Randall Park, and Kevin Sussman. Each interview will be linked to Wet Hot American Summer‘s artist page here once it’s posted. Our next print issue will also feature an in-depth three-page article on the show. Netflix have also released a new behind-the-scenes featurette on the show, which you can watch below.

For those uninitiated, here’s some background on Wet Hot American Summer. In 2001 a little movie called Wet Hot American Summer was released. It was a comedy about the last day of a Jewish summer camp in 1981. It got mixed reviews and faired poorly at the box office, but over time developed a strong cult following. It also happened to star a lot of people who would later go on to become much bigger stars, including Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, and Amy Poehler. All of the main original cast are back for an 8-episode prequel TV series, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, that will stream on Netflix starting July 31. Even though it’s been 14 years since the original movie and all the actors are much older (and were already too old to play teenagers in the first place), part of the joke is Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is a prequel that still takes place in 1981, on the first day of summer camp.

The cast is stacked with stars and includes a mix of originals from the movie and fresh faces, including Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Amy Poehler, Jon Hamm, Jason Schwartzman, Kristen Wiig, Chris Pine, John Slattery, Ken Marino, David Hyde Pierce, Janeane Garofalo, Molly Shannon, Christopher Meloni, Michael Showalter, Lake Bell, Marguerite Moreau, Josh Charles, Randall Park, Michael Ian Black, Zak Orth, A.D. Miles, Kevin Sussman, Joe Lo Truglio, Judah Friedlander, Richard Schiff, Paul Scheer, Jayma Mays, Rob Huebel, Kevin Sussman, Michaela Watkins, and others. Creators Michael Showalter and David Wain are also back to oversee the whole thing.

Read our interview with David Wain.

Read our interview with Lake Bell.

Below is the new behind-the-scenes featurette Netflix shared today, as well as another recent promo video for the show.