Ali Wong is heading back to Netflix with a vengeance to take on some demons. Announced last year, the Beef Emmy winner and stand-up comedian leads the new animated series Jentry Chau vs the Underworld, which follows a Chinese-American teen living in a small town in Texas and taking on two equally imposing horrors – demons from the depths of Hell and high school. A new teaser and images shared today tease her complicated world of trying to fit in while using her supernatural powers to fight off unspeakable horrors hunting her down. She’ll face her demons, both internal and external, on the streamer in December.
In the teaser, Jentry is introduced trying to capture a fun, approachable, and “definitely won’t set fire to you” vibe with her outfit with some help from her friend. For demons, however, she exudes the exact opposite energy, wielding fire with an unbelievable ferocity to burn away everything that goes bump in the night. She may not be the most popular kid in high school, but her abilities have drawn the attention of a demon king hell-bent on harnessing them for his own means. That means she’s forced to face everything from zombies, ghosts, and other monstrous beings inspired by folklore to save her town. Learning to harness her powers instead of repressing them will be vital to banishing the army of demons after her, but as she comes to terms with her fears and gets a little help from her weapons expert great-aunt and a millennia-old jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire), she stops running and becomes a fiery menace to monsters everywhere.
Helping to set a haunting, yet defiant tone for the footage is a new song by K-Pop star Jessi titled “3X (세 번),” which will be featured throughout the series. The colorful animation it’s set to is handled by Titmouse, the studio behind Prime Video‘s The Legend of Vox Machina and Netflix‘s Scavenger’s Reign, and it shows through some stunning scenes and sharp contrasts. Wong will be joined in this world of magic and monsters by a talented supporting cast, including SNL‘s Bowen Yang alongside Lori Tan Chinn, Lucy Liu, Jimmy O. Yang, Sheng Wang, Woosung Kim, and A.J. Beckles.
Who Is Behind ‘Jentry Chau vs the Underworld’?
Jentry Chau hails from first-time showrunner Echo Wu, who is best known to this point for co-directing the 2016 animated short The Wishgranter. As an executive producer, she’s also joined by Wong and Locke & Key‘s Aron Eli Coleite, while Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio, and Ben Kalina executive produce through Titmouse. The series joins an ever-growing slate of animation at Netflix, including acclaimed series like Arcane, Twilight of the Gods, and Blue Eye Samurai. What Wu believes will make her show stand out among the rest is its layered main character, who tries to work out her self-identity in the middle of a tumultuous time in her life. Speaking to Tudum, Wu shared:
“Sometimes finding your self-identity is coming face-to-face with your own demons. There are different layers to what that means. It rings quite true in Jentry. She’s trying to figure out what these powers mean to her. Are they part of her? Are they cursing her? You see this character trying to figure out who she is.”
Jentry Chau vs the Underworld premieres on Netflix on December 5. Check out the teaser in the player below.
via Collider