The Letterkenny Guy Made a Show About Bear Wranglers and the Trailer Is Exactly As Unhinged As It Sounds

TORONTO

Jared Keeso has built a career on finding comedy in the most specific corners of Canadian life — a small Ontario town with a hockey team full of chirping beauties, then a minor-league hockey enforcer with a heart of gold. His next corner: a family that wrangles bears for movies. The trailer for I Kill the Bear dropped this week, and it is exactly as unhinged as that sentence makes it sound.

The six-part Crave Original premieres Friday, November 6, with two episodes dropping weekly. The setup, per Bell Media's official announcement: the Thibaults — played by Keeso, MMA legend Georges St-Pierre, Jonathan Torrens, and Sarah-Maude Beauchesne — are a fourth-generation Franco-Ontarian family who make their living wrangling bears on film sets. They're, according to Bell Media's official announcement, "incredibly kind, well-intentioned people who have spent most of their lives isolated in the bush and suddenly find themselves trying to navigate a Hollywood world they don't completely understand." After 100 years, they've decided to make this film their last.

The trailer opens with a bit that tells you immediately whose show this is: a clip from The Ben Mulroney Show, where the host interviews fictional actor Spencer McNery — played by Keeso — about the viability of bringing a Komodo dragon as an emotional support animal on flights. From there it settles into the mockumentary rhythm, with Beauchesne introducing viewers to her on-screen brothers in the Thibault family as they navigate the demands of filmmaking after being approached by Hollywood executives. When the family debates what kind of movie they want to make, they land on an idea the trailer presents as "Free Willy with a Bear." That's the show. That's the whole show, and it's perfect.

The cast Keeso assembled is a deeply Canadian fever dream. Adrian Holmes (Bel-Air, 19-2). St-Pierre — yes, the UFC legend, who has an acting résumé that includes Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Torrens from Trailer Park Boys. Beauchesne from Bellefleur. Kristin Kreuk from Smallville. Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall. Megha Sandhu from Painkiller. Dylan Playfair from Letterkenny. Eliana Jones and Frederick Roy from Shoresy. And, in the casting choice that will break Canadian Twitter, Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger — described in the official announcement, with a straight face, as "multi-award-winning, Diamond-selling."

The guest star list reads like someone raided the green rooms of every Canadian production of the last thirty years: Jann Arden, Brent Butt, Kim Coates, Tricia Helfer, Emma Hunter, Ben Mulroney, Michelle Mylett, Hannah Simone, George Stroumboulopoulos, and more. Keeso conceived the story with producer Trevor Risk; Dan and Sean Skene direct and executive produce alongside Mark Montefiore and Kara Haflidson, with Max Wolfond supervising for New Metric Media.

The business context matters here. I Kill the Bear is part of Keeso's multi-year overall deal with Crave and New Metric Media, signed back in December 2023 to develop new series and Letterkenny spin-offs for the streamer. Letterkenny itself wrapped its twelfth and final season in December 2023. Shoresy's sixth season is currently in the works for a 2027 premiere. And Keeso's Letterkenny collaborator Jacob Tierney is filming the second season of Heated Rivalry in Toronto for a 2027 Crave release. The man has built an entire comedy ecosystem, and I Kill the Bear is its newest wing.

New Metric Media, the studio behind it, has quietly become one of the most important comedy shops in North America — Letterkenny, Shoresy, Children Ruin Everything, Bria Mack Gets a Life — with digital brands generating nearly 200 million YouTube views and a social audience north of seven million. The company's franchise extensions include Letterkenny Live, Puppers Premium Lager, and Gus N' Bruno whisky. A show about bear wranglers fits right in.

One open question: the U.S. home. Letterkenny streams on Hulu stateside, and coverage suggests I Kill the Bear will presumably land there too — but as of this writing, there's no official word. For now, it's a Crave exclusive, premiering November 6 with two episodes weekly. American fans may need to get creative, or patient.

It's worth noting what Keeso is really selling here, because it's the same thing he's always sold: sincerity as a comedic weapon. Letterkenny worked because the characters meant every chirp. Shoresy worked because the sentiment was real underneath the vulgarity. A family of bear wranglers deciding to make one last movie together is, at its core, a story about people who love what they do and know it's ending. The bears are just the vehicle. The fact that the vehicle is an actual bear is what makes it a Jared Keeso show — and why, trailer unseen by most of America yet, it's already one of the most anticipated comedies of the fall.

Friday, November 6, 2026, on Crave — two episodes, then two weekly. Shot in Sudbury, Ontario.