Kylie Minogue, Jonathan Groff, and Catherine Tate Join Cynthia Erivo in Bad Fairies

LOS ANGELES--( BUSINESS WIRE)--Kylie Minogue, Jonathan Groff, and Catherine Tate have joined the voice cast of Bad Fairies, the original animated musical comedy from Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Locksmith Animation. Minogue will voice Clowder, the Cat Witch, Groff will voice Robin Goodfellow, and Tate will voice the Fairy Gothmother. They join Cynthia Erivo, who leads the film as Jayne Staplegun.

Erivo shared the news herself tonight during Let Me Sing to You, her one-night-only concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The second half of the evening opened with an orchestral piece built on "Hard to Believe," Jayne's song from the film. Erivo then introduced audiences to Jayne, one of a group of delightfully defiant, rule-breaking fairies. After announcing Groff and Tate, she revealed one final surprise, celebrating Minogue seated in the audience as the latest member of the cast.

"Bad Fairies is about characters who break the rules to do some good, and Cynthia brings that spirit to everything she does, so there was no better way to share this news than from the Hollywood Bowl stage in her voice," said Bill Damaschke, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. "With Kylie, Jonathan and Catherine joining her, we have a cast as bold and joyful as the film itself."

“From the moment we began developing Bad Fairies, we knew it was exactly the kind of story Locksmith exists to tell: funny, surprising and full of heart,” said Natalie Fischer, CEO of Locksmith Animation. “Cynthia Erivo’s extraordinary voice has been the soul of this film since she came on board, and we’re thrilled to have Kylie, Jonathan and Catherine bring their enormous talents to these characters. We can’t wait for audiences to meet them next May.”

“I’m so excited to be part of Bad Fairies, alongside the incredible Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Groff and such a brilliant cast of voices,” said Minogue. “And getting to play both a cat and a witch? It’s a little bit magical, a little bit mischievous and a whole lot of fun.”

"Clowder needed to be impossibly glamorous and hilariously chaotic in the same breath, and Kylie was always the dream," said director Megan Nicole Dong. "She has made the character completely her own, and she brings this amazing energy to the booth that ends up in every frame."

"Jonathan finds the comedy and the heart in a character at exactly the same time, which is everything Robin Goodfellow needs, and there is no one funnier than Catherine to play our Fairy Gothmother," said co-director Olivier Staphylas. "Our animators are building on our fabulous actors’ instincts and comic timing to create characters that feel both larger than life and genuinely real.”

A two-time Grammy Award winner who has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, Minogue is one of the defining pop artists of the past four decades. Her 2023 single "Padam Padam" won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Pop Dance Recording.

Groff won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Merrily We Roll Along. He originated the role of King George III in Hamilton, earning an Emmy nomination for the filmed production, and his screen work includes Mindhunter and Glee.

Tate is known for The Catherine Tate Show, her role as Donna Noble in Doctor Who and Nellie Bertram in The Office.

Erivo is a Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner and three-time Academy Award nominee.

With tonight's news, the voice cast of Bad Fairies announced to date includes Cynthia Erivo as Jayne Staplegun, Kylie Minogue as Clowder, Jonathan Groff as Robin Goodfellow, Catherine Tate as the Fairy Gothmother, Serrana Su-Ling Bliss as Fei Chang, James Acaster as Stickers, and Dee Bradley Baker as Groundbeef, along with Ncuti Gatwa as Butterwort.

Bad Fairies is an original musical comedy set in contemporary London that follows a delightfully subversive gang of fairies as they shake up their magical world. The film is directed by Megan Nicole Dong and co-directed by Olivier Staphylas, from an original screenplay by Deborah Frances-White.

Tony Award-winning duo Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (Six: The Musical) are writing the original songs, with multiple Grammy-nominated Isabella "Machine" Summers (Florence + The Machine) composing the score and contributing to the songs. Ian Eisendrath (KPop Demon Hunters) is executive music producer.

The film's creative team also includes producer Carolyn Soper, editor Sim Evan-Jones, cinematographer James C.J. Williams, character designer Uwe Heidschötter, heads of story Rikke Asbjoern and Chris Garbutt, and production designers Justin Hutchinson-Chatburn and Mike Redman. Production is underway in London, with DNEG Animation serving as digital partner.

Bad Fairies is the first feature under the first-look deal between Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Locksmith Animation and will debut theatrically via Warner Bros. Pictures on May 21, 2027.

Kylie Minogue is represented by Jason Weinberg at Untitled and Polly Bhowmik at Context Management. Jonathan Groff is represented by Brian Boone and Joe Michota at CAA. Catherine Tate is represented by Jeremy Barber at UTA and Robert Taylor at The Artists Partnership.

ABOUT WARNER BROS. PICTURES ANIMATION

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, led by President and Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke, is the dedicated theatrical animation division of Warner Bros. Pictures. Headquartered in Burbank, California, in a Frank Gehry designed facility adjacent to the Warner Bros. lot, WBPA produces animated feature films across a range of styles and storytelling traditions, in partnership with leading creative talent and international studios. The division builds on Warner Bros.'s century long legacy of working with iconic directors and visionary up and coming filmmakers.

ABOUT LOCKSMITH ANIMATION

Locksmith Animation is an independent, global animation studio developing and producing high-quality features, series, and shorts for audiences of all ages. Based in London and Los Angeles, Locksmith brings together accomplished industry leaders and world-class creative talent in a filmmaker-led environment. The studio tells contemporary stories that make people laugh, think, and feel.

The studio's debut feature, Ron's Gone Wrong, was released in 2021 in partnership with 20th Century Studios. Its follow-up, That Christmas, based on Richard Curtis's best-selling children's books, became the #1 original animated film on Netflix in 2024, and was BAFTA-longlisted and nominated for six Annie Awards. The studio’s first short, Cardboard, was nominated for the 2026 BAFTA for “British Short Animation.”

Locksmith has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and is in production on Bad Fairies, an original animated musical starring Cynthia Erivo, releasing May 21, 2027, and The Lunar Chronicles, a trilogy based on Marissa Meyer’s best-selling novels, the first of which releases November 3, 2028. The studio is also in production on its first independently produced feature Wed Wabbit.

With an exciting slate of projects in the works, Locksmith remains committed to creating groundbreaking entertainment that resonates with audiences around the world.