Director Phil Johnston Talks Transforming ‘The Twits’ from Series to Netflix Film & Diving Into The World of Roald Dahl

The Twits. (L to R) Johnny Vegas as Mr. Twit, Margo Martindale as Mrs. Twit, in The Twits. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

​​The Twits represents Netflix’s latest foray into the world of Roald Dahl, following on from Wes Anderson’s 2023 collection of short films based on Dahl stories. The Twits is a major change of pace, a CG-animated film reinterpreting the 1980 book for a modern, younger audience. Altering the original book’s premise, this film follows two children from an orphanage as they encounter the forces of pure evil and mischief contained within The Twits.

The film takes on a distinct art style, aiming for a grimy and gothic look to represent the darker themes in the story, all while maintaining the whimsical and comedic elements essential to the book. In the director’s chair for this one is Phil Johnston, a former Disney filmmaker who worked on both Wreck-It Ralph movies. What’s On Netflix caught up with Johnston to get into how he arrived on the film, the decisions he took to change the story and his visual intent.

WoN: How did you first arrive on the project?

I was just finishing the second Ralph movie over at Disney, and a friend of mine, who was working at Netflix, called and was like, ‘Do you want to do a Rohl Dahl story as a limited series? You can pick whichever one you want.’ I thought it would be interesting to do The Twits because it’s such a weird book with these two hateful characters who are not redeemable in any way. And I was just coming off 10 years of working on three Disney films, which I love and I’m very proud of, but wanted something that was completely different. So we started it as a limited series and had written eight episodes and had animatics for six of the eight. And after a year and a half or so, it just got canceled, but we had this opportunity to move very quickly and transform it into a film. I use the analogy of jumping out of an airplane and building the parachute on your way down, maintaining the anarchic spirit of The Twits and trying to tell a coherent story that is still thematically about the things I’m interested in, which is an exploration of hatred and empathy in the world.

WoN: How do you go about adapting a series into a film without making it obvious where the episodes would begin and end?

If you had seen our early iterations, you would have said “ew.” You still might do that, but it would have been much more apparent, the episodic kind of nature of it. It becomes about killing your darlings at a certain point because you have 200 minutes that needs to be down to 90. Necessarily, it can’t be the same story. We took elements that I liked, that theme of empathy, of the kids learning to understand the Muggle Wumps as a sign of their empathy, that became the main flag in the ground that I wanted to plant. And then just keeping The Twits as these grotesque chaos agents who represented the low brow humor, and then allowing for some higher brow themes and ideas to exist within the story. And as is the case with so many Dahl stories, the children are the absolute heroes and adults tend to be not so good.

Picture: Netflix

WoN: What made you change the original story from a group of boys to a pair of orphans who develop a brother-sister relationship?

I didn’t think The Twits could be both protagonists and antagonists in the story, so I wanted the protagonists to be these kids who represent decency and kindness and empathy, and who can go on this journey of learning to see that there are Twits in the world. Twits exist, we have to live with them, so how do we live with them? The answer is, we don’t become them. That’s where those characters came from, with that story in mind, crafting kids who would be able to go on that journey.

WoN: Was this always going to be a 3D-animated film?

In my fever dreams in the beginning, I thought doing it with puppetry was what I wanted to do. That was not feasible, particularly for a high end event series, it was going to take forever to do. But I still wanted that, you know, very tactile world, so you feel like you can touch those characters and squish and smell them. That tactile nature was central to the design from day one.

WoN: How did you go about adapting the famous 2D artwork of The Twits into 3D?

The Quentin Blake drawings are so iconic and very much an influence. They’re quick and gestural and when you look at one, you know it can’t be anyone else. I knew I couldn’t exactly replicate that, but part of the philosophy was it’s going to be a little bit messy in this world, and these designs aren’t going to be perfect. Symmetry isn’t going to be a big thing. I’m concerned with the shapes being unusual, even the camera angles are going to be different than you would typically see in an animated film. You don’t usually see low angle shots or a wide angle lens that tend to veer toward the grotesque. Blake’s drawings are hugely appealing, while also capturing the chaos and meanness and cruelty in the world in a way that makes you lean in, as opposed to being repelled.

The Twits. (L to R) Ryan Lopez as Bubsy, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Beesha, in The Twits. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

WoN: What kinds of changes did you make to try and suit the story to a modern audience?

The biggest thing I wanted to do with the story is use it as a way to explore hatred and small-mindedness and the meanness of the world as I am experiencing it today and as my children are experiencing it today. That idea that hate is such an easy emotion to access, you don’t have to do anything, it’s just there, and there’s nothing to it other than just blind rage. And there’s so much of that in the world. In Dahl’s book, I think he started it because he was irritated that so many people had beards. He didn’t like guys with beards. I don’t have a problem with beards, I kind of have one right now, but I think he created these characters while looking around his world, and I’m sure he saw ample examples of Twits. If we hate too much and we don’t listen to our brighter angels, we will all become Twits, even if you’re right, but you’re just screaming at the other guy, it’s not going to get anywhere. That’s always been what the story was about to me.

Picture: Netflix

WoN: The film has a lot of grotesque design but also whimsical elements and characters. How do you go about blending the dark and light tones?

There’s an early line from the narrator of high-brow themes and low-brow comedy. I think that duality exists throughout the film. The thing I love about Dahl is that his antagonists are not redeemable. There’s not this big arc where you go, ‘Oh, the Twits learned at the end that being nice is the answer,’ no, they go back to being Twits. But I wanted the children and the Muggle Wumps to go on this journey where they could actually become Twits themselves but then come to the light and see that being a Twit isn’t great. Having this balance of real emotion, where you feel for these characters in a very meaningful way, and going on the journey with them and seeing what darkness and hatred looks like through their eyes, balancing the comedy with that is always a challenge. Particularly this kind of comedy, which is so big at times, it’s insane and grotesque. But walking the tonal tight rope is the most exciting thing.

WoN: Netflix is adapting more and more Dahl stories. Is there any particular one you expect to see next?

It’s not something I would necessarily want to make myself, but I would love to see Danny, the Champion of the World. Again, it’s a weird story about a little boy who lives with his dad in this camper behind a gas station. It’s just a simple story about good and evil and a very sweet character in a very cool relationship with his dad. I’d love to see someone do that one because it hasn’t been done yet.

The Twits streams on Netflix from October 17th, 2025.