Bill Hader showed up at Warner Bros.’ CinemaCon presentation to tease the studio’s upcoming Cat in the Hat movie and immediately admitted his toughest critics weren’t online, they were at home. After introducing a work-in-progress look at the animated film, Hader told the crowd that when he broke the news to his three daughters, two were excited… and the youngest flat-out booed him, chanting, “Boo!… Ryan Gosling! Boo! Boo!”
The story landed because it’s painfully relatable: a kid has a very specific “perfect casting” in their head, and Dad is not it. Hader framed it as playful family roasting rather than actual disappointment, but the punchline did what a good CinemaCon anecdote is supposed to do—humanize the star and get a laugh before the footage.
Warner Bros. Animation chief Bill Damaschke positioned Cat in the Hat as a “doorway” into a bigger Seuss-connected world, and the footage apparently leaned into that “bigger than the book” ambition. The early look described the Cat as wanted for a crime he didn’t commit, with chaos spilling into a suburban home as the Cat tries to handle what’s teased as his toughest assignment yet—while fighting to keep his signature hat.
Hader also noted he’d been chasing this role for a while, even taping an audition, and the presentation nodded to his Seuss history by referencing a Saturday Night Live sketch where he previously played the Cat. The new film’s voice cast includes America Ferrera, Bowen Yang and Matt Berry, with the movie currently slated to hit theaters in February 2026.
