The Cat in the Hat will have to wait a little longer to unleash his shenanigans as the release of the upcoming animated film has been pushed back. The film was originally slated to hit theaters on February 27, 2026, but Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Animation have announced that the film will now be released on November 6, 2026.
The delay isn’t due to the production needing more time — it’s reportedly ready to go for February — but the studio believes it will do better closer to the holiday season, when families and kids are more available to head to the movies.
Based on the story by Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat stars Bill Hader in the title role. The rest of the cast includes the voices of Xochitl Gomez, Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Paula Pell, Tiago Martinez, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Bowen Yang, and Tituss Burgess.
Speaking of casting, Hader told the crowd at CinemaCon earlier this year that his youngest daughter didn’t think much of him playing the Cat, preferring that Ryan Gosling should be the one in the role. “Well, I will say, I have three daughters, and I’ve been reading it to them, and then my parents read it to me,” Hader said. “And so I remember when I, you know, got the call about this, and I went into my kids, and I was like, ‘Hey, what do you guys think about the Cat in the Hat?’ And two of them were stoked. And the youngest one was like, ‘Boo!… Ryan Gosling! Boo! Boo!’“
The new film twists the classic story in a new direction. In this version, the Cat works for the I.I.I.I. (Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC) where he spreads joy to kids. He soon takes on his most challenging assignment yet, as he’s tasked with cheering up Gabby and Sebastian, a pair of siblings struggling with their move to a new town. Known for taking things too far, this could be this agent of chaos’s last chance to prove himself…or lose his magical hat! The Cat in the Hat is written and directed by Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja.
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