General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Charlotte's Web (2025 TV series)

Charlotte's Web is a 2025 animated three-part miniseries adaptation of E.B. White's 1952 children's novel, produced by Sesame Workshop with animation by Guru Studio and released on HBO Max. All three parts debuted together on October 2, 2025, exclusively on HBO Max in the United States.¹ The series retells the story of Wilbur, a pig raised for slaughter, and Charlotte, the barn spider who saves him by weaving praise of him into her web.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Three-part animated miniseries, family audience³
Premiere	October 2, 2025, all three parts released the same day on HBO Max in the U.S.¹
Production	Sesame Workshop (producer); stylized 3DCG animation by Guru Studio of Toronto¹
Key creatives	Showrunner, executive producer, and writer Luke Matheny; director Yurie Rocha¹
Lead cast	Amy Adams as Charlotte, Elijah Wood as adult Wilbur, Griffin Robert Faulkner as young Wilbur, Jean Smart as the Narrator¹
Rating	TV-G; Common Sense Media recommends it for age 8+ and named it a Common Sense Selection⁴^•⁵
Status	Ended; one season of three episodes, all aired October 2, 2025²

Spoilers

Story

The series follows the novel's plot. Young Fern Arable stops her father from killing the runt of a litter and raises the piglet herself, naming him Wilbur; when Wilbur grows too big he is sold to her aunt and uncle, the Zuckermans, where he befriends the barn spider Charlotte. When Wilbur learns the Zuckermans are raising him for slaughter, Charlotte vows to save him and spins messages praising him in her web, convincing the people around the farm that Wilbur is extraordinary.²^•⁵ The third part carries the characters to the County Fair, where Wilbur's chance at a blue ribbon and Charlotte's greatest web message decide his fate.²

Background and production

The project was first announced in 2022.⁶ HBO Max announced the completed special on September 25, 2025, describing it as an animated retelling of White's novel from Academy Award winner Luke Matheny, known for Ghostwriter, executive produced in collaboration with Sesame Workshop, the global nonprofit behind Sesame Street.¹ Kay Wilson Stallings, Sesame Workshop's EVP and Chief Creative and Production Officer, said the adaptation had been "years in the making" and celebrates friendship, empathy, courage, and community.¹

The Publishers Weekly account of the release, indexed by EBSCO, reports that the production involved collaboration with E.B. White's estate and that Matheny aimed to create a definitive version of the story, with a 138-minute total runtime allowing deeper exploration of the book's elements than a single film would permit.⁷ Matheny has said he remembered how emotionally devastating the ending of an earlier animated adaptation felt to him in elementary school, and that the story taps into primal fears about losing a parent.⁸

Animation and design

Guru Studio, the Toronto-based animation house also known for PAW Patrol and Sesame Street Mecha Builders, completed production on the stylized cinematic miniseries in 2024 according to the studio's own history.³^•⁹ Director Yurie Rocha said it was "an honor to bring the beloved Charlotte's Web to a new generation."

Character and world design. Guru states that each character was crafted to honor White's source material: Wilbur balances realistic proportions with expressive movement, Charlotte evolves from a formidable spider into a graceful, endearing presence, and Fern's design incorporates her Puerto Rican heritage as a modern touch.³ The settings follow the book's milieu, from a humble 1940s Maine farm to the Zuckerman home, with every plant, beam, and nail chosen to preserve what the studio calls the environment's honest, untamed beauty.³ An Animation World Network feature on the production notes that getting the webs right was a priority for Matheny and Rocha, since the webs are among the story's most iconic elements; the earlier Hanna-Barbera adaptation of 1973 had used 2D animation with simpler black-line webs.¹⁰

Cast

The ensemble voice cast announced with the premiere includes:¹

Amy Adams as Charlotte
Elijah Wood as adult Wilbur, with Griffin Robert Faulkner as young Wilbur
Jean Smart as the Narrator
Natalie Chan as Fern
Cynthia Erivo as Goose
Danny Trejo as Gander
Randall Park as Templeton
Chris Diamantopoulos as Homer Zuckerman
Rosario Dawson as Edith Zuckerman
Ana Ortiz as Dolores Arable
Tom Everett Scott as John Arable
Leith Burke as George
Keith David as Old Sheep
Patricia Richardson as Widow Fussy
Dee Bradley Baker as the Animals

Matheny singled out Amy Adams's performance, calling her "for my money, the greatest Charlotte to date."

Release and reception

All three parts, titled simply Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, became available on HBO Max in the United States on October 2, 2025.² The series later streamed on Hulu and on HBO Max's Amazon Channel as well.¹¹^•¹² A German-language streaming premiere followed on HBO Max on February 21, 2026.¹³

Critical response. Common Sense Media's review called it "possibly the definitive adaptation of this timeless classic," praising it for honoring the book while modernizing the narrative with multi-layered characters, and noted that scenes involving separation, loss, and death may be sad for younger children.⁵ On JustWatch the series holds a user rating of 7.0 based on 235 ratings.¹² The release arrived during a contraction in U.S. animated series commissions, which fell from 15 children's-animation adaptations of kids' book IP on streaming in 2022 to five in 2025 according to a Luminate industry report published the month before the premiere.¹⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026