The trailer for the Mr. Rogers drama A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is here, and fans are feeling sentimental. The movie stars Tom Hanks as everyone’s favorite children’s TV host, and most fans agree it is pitch-perfect casting. The movie will be out in November.
The first trailer came out on Monday morning, hot on the heels of dozens of other huge movie announcements this weekend. The full-length preview shows Hanks in action, affecting Fred Rogers‘ iconic demeanor and re-enacting his beloved show. For fans, it brought back fond memories, and had them mourning Rogers all over again.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Tom Hank can pull off any person in the entire world,” one fan tweeted, “this man is the top actor of all actors.”
“Fred is a national treasure! I am the kind adult I am today because I grew up with Fred on my TV screen,” added another. “And casting the Kindness that is Tom Hanks is so darn SPOT ON! This tweet made my morning!”
“So I guess I might just spend a good couple of hours in the movie theater crying watching Tom Hanks play Mr. Rogers this Thanksgiving, huh?” resolved film journalist Annie Zaleski.
Fans also noted that the movie came at perfect timing, following last year’s acclaimed documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor. Fred Rogers passed away in 2003, leaving behind a legacy that media critics are just now starting to parse. His children’s show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, defied all the rules of TV as producers understood it, yet it became a lasting success that helped to raise several generations of young children.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood has been in the works since last January. It tells the story of Rogers’ work through the perspective of journalist Lloyd Vogel — played by Matthew Rhys — who was assigned to write a profile of Rogers for Esquire. He approached the project with a lot of cynicism, but slowly Rogers was able to win even Vogel over, and the writer became one of his biggest champions.
Rogers passed away in 2003, just two years after he finally retired, though he continued to travel and work with children and in children’s media specifically. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2002, and he passed away just a few months later.
Fans have gotten a teaser image for the drama here and there over the last few months, but with the release od the trailer it is finally a reality. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood hits theaters in November of 2019.
