Meet the Human-Deer Hybrid Hero of Sweet Tooth in the First Trailer for Netflix Series

Netflix has dropped a first teaser for its upcoming DC Comics series Sweet Tooth, but anyone expecting typical superhero fare is in for quite the surprise. This is an original, non-superhero adaptation of the series from prolific comics creator Jeff Lemire, with a protagonist the likes of which we really haven’t seen before. Particularly in the sense that it’s a human-deer hybrid boy, who you can see in the teaser below. The series debuts on Netflix on June 4, 2021. As the brief synopsis reads:

Gus, a human-deer hybrid, leaves his home in the forest to find the outside world ravaged by a cataclysmic event. He joins a ragtag family of humans-animal hybrids in search of answers about this new world and the mystery behind his hybrid origins.

That “cataclysmic event” is apparently called “The Great Crumble,” and as a pandemic-like event it can’t help but evoke the ongoing global fight against COVID-19. The human-animal hybrids who began to be born around the same time are apparently scapegoated for this event and the resulting collapse of society, which means there will be some obvious racial themes at play here as well. Our protagonist Gus/Sweet Tooth befriends a wandering loner, and together the two “search for the meaning of home,” according to Bloody Disgusting.

Sweet Tooth may actually be of particular interest to the horror geeks in the audience, as it is created and directed by none other than accomplished indie horror director Jim Mickle, the writer-director of Stake Land, We Are What We Are and Netflix’s own In the Shadow of the Moon. In fact, the “wandering the post-apocalyptic countryside” aspect of Sweet Tooth would seem to evoke Mickle’s own Stake Land, in which a boy and an older mentor are traveling the United States after a deadly pandemic of vampirism. Netflix’s series, however, looks to be projecting a far cuter, more hopeful and less harrowing tone.

“We wanted to make a show that offers escape and adventure, where nature is reclaiming the world and in many ways, it feels like a fairytale,” said Mickle in a statement. “Sweet Tooth is a new kind of dystopian story, it’s very lush and hopeful. We want people to come into this world where there’s beauty and hope and adventure. This is a sweeping story—we ride on trains, climb mountaintops, run through forests. This is a show about what makes a family, what home really means, and why it’s important to keep faith in humanity.”

Sweet Tooth’s first season will consist of 8 hourlong episodes, starring Christian Convery as Gus, alongside Nonso Anozie, Adeel Akhtar, Aliza Vellani, Stefania LaVie Owen, Dania Ramirez, Neil Sandilands, and a very unexpected appearance from none other than Will Forte. Check out the full teaser below.