Grab your glass slippers and hold onto them tightly, because somebody just yeeted the fairy tale rulebook out the castle window.
Netflix has released the official STEPS teaser trailer, and if you’ve spent 300 years assuming Cinderella’s stepsisters were nothing but cackling, foot-mutilating mean girls, well, the STEPS teaser trailer would like a word.
Okay, But What Actually IS Steps?
Let’s back up. Steps is Netflix Animation’s new fully in-house animated comedy, and according to multiple outlets covering the STEPS teaser trailer, it flips the Cinderella story on its glittery head by centering it on Lilith and Margot — the stepsisters previously known only for their villain-coded resting faces.
In the 3D CG film, sick of living in Cinderella’s shadow, Lilith steals the Fairy Godmother’s magic wand and hijacks the Royal Ball with her sister Margot, breaking the Cinderella story as fans know it and dooming the kingdom to the tyrannical rule of Priscilla, a villainous schemer who swoops in and snatches the throne.
So basically: one impulsive wand heist, and suddenly the entire kingdom is somebody else’s problem. Relatable chaos energy, honestly.
Now, Lilith has to team up with Cinderella to fight biker trolls, outrun evil henchmen, and escape something ominously named the Screaming Woods, all to save the kingdom — but, we’re told, most importantly, to save their relationship.
A magical girl-boss redemption arc and a sisterhood drama? The STEPS teaser trailer is doing more emotional labor in two minutes than most rom-coms do in two hours.
Who’s Behind the Wand (and the Wand-Stealing)
Per Animation World Network’s coverage of the release, the film is directed by Alyce Tzue and John Ripa, with Amy Poehler, Jane Hartwell and Kim Lessing producing, with Poehler and Lessing producing for Paper Kite Productions.
Ripa previously co-directed Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, and Tzue is a Student Academy Award gold medalist — so the creative pedigree behind the STEPS teaser trailer isn’t exactly amateur hour.
And according to Slash Film’s early reporting on the project, this whole thing was cooked up by comedy-folk duo Garfunkel and Oates (Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci), who also handle the film’s original songs.
Lindhome wrote the script, based on a story by Lindhome and Micucci, and the pair — described as “Our stepsisters are a pair of young Asian immigrants to a fairytale world” — clearly wanted this to be more than a glass-slipper cash grab.
A musical fairy-tale satire penned by the Garfunkel and Oates ladies? Suddenly the tonal whiplash in the STEPS teaser trailer — royal balls one second, troll chases the next — makes a lot more sense.
The Voice Cast Is Almost Comically Stacked
If you thought the STEPS teaser trailer cast list looked like someone raided three different awards shows, you weren’t wrong. As AWN also confirmed, the lineup includes Ali Wong as Lilith, Amanda Seyfried as Cinderella, Stephanie Hsu as Margot, Nikki Glaser as Priscilla, and Bette Midler as the Fairy Godmother, alongside Daniel Radcliffe voicing The Prince, Peter Dinklage as Roderick “The Muscle,” and Young Mazino as Gef “The Heartthrob.”
WWE’s Damian Priest also shows up as a character literally named Cracktor, because sure, why not — the STEPS teaser trailer era of casting is apparently “throw darts at a wall of famous people and also one wrestler.”
Bette Midler playing a Fairy Godmother whose wand gets stolen within the first act feels like the setup to a Hocus Pocus fever dream, and honestly, the internet has noticed.
What the STEPS Teaser Trailer Actually Shows
Stripping away the marketing sparkle, here’s the gist of what’s on screen: Lilith steals the Fairy Godmother’s magic wand, hijacks the Royal Ball with Margot, and ends up dooming the kingdom to Priscilla’s tyranny — a plot description that sounds suspiciously like the setup to a heist movie that got lost on the way to Disneyland.
The Wrap’s coverage adds an important production nugget: the movie has an “ornate, frosted-cake aesthetic” that was previewed at the Annecy International Film Festival earlier this summer, where Netflix ran a work-in-progress session that reportedly left critics very impressed.
Also worth noting, per The Wrap: Steps is Netflix Animation Studios’ first end-to-end production, meaning it wasn’t outsourced to partner studios like Sony Pictures Animation or Skydance Animation. That’s a genuinely big swing for Netflix — the STEPS teaser trailer isn’t just selling a movie, it’s low-key flexing an entire in-house animation pipeline.
According to Italian outlet Cinefilos, the STEPS teaser trailer opens by narrating the classic Cinderella tale in familiar, storybook fashion — before Lilith rudely (and hilariously) interrupts to insist she’s got the “real story,” complete with high-speed chases and one deeply unconventional troll. It’s giving Shrek energy by way of Cinderella, filtered through a Garfunkel and Oates fever dream.
The Rumor and Theory Corner: Is Steps Actually “Wicked” for Stepsisters?
No STEPS teaser trailer breakdown would be complete without acknowledging the discourse. Not everyone is thrilled about the redemption-arc premise. Yahoo Entertainment ran a piece arguing the film risks flattening the fairy tale’s original point, noting that in the original story the stepsisters were such ambitious clout-chasers they cut off parts of their feet to fit the glass slipper, and the tale was fundamentally about mean girls bullying Cinderella.
The critique boils down to: are we sure “misunderstood,” rather than “actually kind of villainous,” is the right rebrand here?
It’s a fair gripe — but also, in 2026, hasn’t every fairy-tale antagonist earned a sympathetic backstory by now? Maleficent got one. The Wicked Witch got an entire Broadway-to-blockbuster empire. Cinderella’s stepsisters getting their turn via the STEPS teaser trailer feels less like a rewrite and more like the fairy-tale industrial complex simply running out of untapped villains.
Where Steps Fits in Netflix’s Animation Empire
Timing-wise, per Animation Scoop, Steps is part of Netflix’s original animation slate that already includes the most-watched Netflix film ever, KPop Demon Hunters, plus Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning Pinocchio and the Oscar-nominated Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. That’s some genuinely elite company for a movie about wand theft and frog-related sibling mishaps.
The STEPS teaser trailer also arrives just ahead of a stacked holiday animation season — The Wrap notes it’s landing alongside Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn and the coming-of-age film In Waves — putting Netflix squarely in “everyone’s fighting for Thanksgiving couch time” mode.
The Bottom Line
Between the Garfunkel and Oates songwriting pedigree, an ensemble cast that reads like a Vanity Fair afterparty guest list, a genuinely gorgeous “frosted-cake” animation style, and a premise gutsy enough to ask “what if the mean girls just needed better PR,” the STEPS teaser trailer has done its job: it’s got people talking, arguing, and setting calendar reminders for November 20, 2026, when Steps officially premieres on Netflix worldwide.
Whether Lilith and Margot end up as beloved girlbosses or Exhibit A in “fairy tale revisionism has gone too far” discourse, one thing’s certain — thanks to the STEPS teaser trailer, Cinderella’s stepsisters are never going back to being nameless background bullies again. Step aside, glass slipper. There’s a new pair of shoes running this kingdom now.
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