Here’s Netflix’s First Nonbinary Kids’ Show Character

The trailer for Ridley Jones, a new musical animated series coming to Netflix in July, debuted online today, giving viewers a glimpse of the show that looks like a mash-up between Night at the Museum and a G-rated version of Indiana Jones. In the trailer, we meet the titular Ridley, a six-year-old who lives in a treehouse with her mom and grandmother in a museum where the exhibits come to life at night.

We are also introduced to several other characters, including Dante, the skateboarding dinosaur, Peaches, who proudly declares herself the “first monkey to slip on a banana peel in space,” and Fred, a bison who is nonbinary.

Fred’s introduction in the trailer is brief, as they tell Ridley that she’s “going to need a bison bodyguard,” presumably referring to themself. But Fred’s inclusion is significant, as they are the first nonbinary character to appear in one of Netflix’s kids’ shows.

In the past few years, there has been an increase in nonbinary characters in kids’ television, such as Odee, the Okapi in the upcoming third season of Madagascar: A Little Wild. Double Trouble from Netflix’s She-Ra is also nonbinary, though that show is aimed at a slightly older audience than Ridley Jones.

Fred appears to be one of the primary supporting characters in Ridley Jones, which represents another major milestone in LGBTQ+ representation in media. Show creator Chris Nee, who also made Doc McStuffins, said that she wanted to emphasize the importance of inclusivity with her new series.

“I really wanted to do a series where a girl was the action-adventure star I always wanted to see (or be) when I was growing up,” Nee said in a press release. “Like so many of my shows, this world is a perfect canvas upon which to create a community of oddball characters and model what it means to take care of each other, even if you aren’t from the same era of time or wing of the museum.”

Ridley Jones premieres July 13 on Netflix.