Mister Rogers Biopic Trailer Will Bring You Right Back to Childhood

Tom Hanks is Mister Rogers in the newly released trailer for It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and there couldn’t have possibly been better casting than this.

America’s Dad dons the iconic red cardigan belonging to America’s favorite next-door neighbor almost as soon as the trailer starts rolling, and as he starts singing the all-too-familiar “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” the fact that this is actually Tom Hanks practically disappears.

The highly anticipated film is based on a 1998 Esquire article profiling Fred Rogers, and the story follows journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) as he interviews Mr. Rogers and has his outlook completely changed during the course of their encounters.

The trailer portrays Vogel as a cynical, bedraggled man who tells Mr. Rogers “you love broken people, like me,” while Hanks’ Rogers comes across as the soft-spoken, patient man he seemed to always be whether the cameras were on or off.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Internet was in a frenzy after rediscovering a quote from the children’s TV host that suggested he may have been bisexual.

The Good Neighbor, a biography by Maxwell King, cites a conversation Rogers had with Dr. William Hirsch about the sexuality spectrum in which he supposedly said: “Well, you know, I must be right smack in the middle. Because I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive.”

It’s only a small moment, but the idea that one of the most iconically kind and respected men in America’s recent history was possibly bisexual at a time when there are still groups writing the LGBTQ community off as deviants means a lot to some people.

Of course, it’s sure to be a possible aspect of Mister Rogers’ life that It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood won’t delve into, but we can sit back, watch Tom Hanks be incredible, and know for ourselves.

The film is set to be released on November 22.