‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Season 1 Gets “Shockingly Dark”, Stays Faithful to Original Novels; Neil Patrick Harris Channels Wile E. Cayote for Olaf

‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ is set to get “shockingly dark” as the series stays faithful to the original novels of the same name. Neil Patrick Harris is set to channel Wile E. Cayote for his own version of the evil Count Olaf.

Season 1 of Netflix’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ is scheduled to premiere on January 2017. Harris is set to play the villainous Count Olaf, a role performed by comedian Jim Carey in the original 2004 film adaptation of the same name. The Netflix web television series promises two episodes for each book in the 13-novel series and will span three whole seasons.

During an interview with Collider, Harris promised that the series will get “shockingly dark” for the television adaptation. He said, “I think it’s super faithful to the books. I think at times it’s shockingly dark.”

He continued, “From what I gathered, Netflix was concerned that adults weren’t going to be able to value it because it was skewing towards a younger demographic. And I think now that it’s done, they want to make sure the kids still value it and it’s not gone too Stranger Things. I really wanted Olaf to be bad. To be a bad person.”

Harris revealed that author Daniel Handler, who used the pen name Lemony Snicket for his book series, was involved in the web series and provided guidance and writing supervision behind-the-scenes. Harris said, “He was very involved with a lot of stuff. He even helped write the theme song. And he’s in the show, you’ll see him in the actual piece. He’s our own little Alfred Hitchcock. He was very involved in the writing, as he should have been.”

The series follows Violet (Malina Weismann), Klaus (Louis Hynes), and Sunny (Presley Smith) Baudelaire as they are placed under the protective custody of their nefarious “relative” count Olaf following their parents’ deaths in a mysterious fire that ravaged their family home. Sensing their danger, the Baudelaire siblings attempt daring escapes from Olaf’s clutches.

Count Olaf, a man who presents himself as a distant relative of the Baudelaires, is fixated with the family’s inheritance and is notorious for numerous counts of arson.

When asked about his work as Count Olaf on the incoming series during an interview with The A.V. Club, Harris said, “I mostly drew from the text. I wanted it to be as true to the material as possible given that Daniel Handler is actively involved in this iteration, and that Barry Sonnenfeld, who was involved in the movie, is now involved in it again.”

He continued, “I didn’t really have any vested interest in doing the sort of NPH version of Olaf. Plus, I hadn’t really read the books before so it was all fresh and new to me… He looked nothing like me, so then I was thinking in a Lon Chaney kind of way—how fun would it be to get lost physically in a character and be straight-up horrible, just awful without recourse, without self-reflection. So through that, I started thinking about Wile E. Coyote and about people who are just bad, delusional kind of people.”

‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ season 1 is set to premiere its eight episodes on Netflix on January 13, 2017. It is an upcoming drama television series developed by Mark Hudis.