The Free Guy movie trailer is released during the film’s CCXP panel, revealing Ryan Reynolds as a NPC (non-playable character) in a video game who gains sentience. As Hollywood adapts all manner of book, comic and video game properties for live-action blockbusters, Free Guy is an entirely original idea - albeit one that’s rooted deeply in video gaming culture. Directed by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) from a script by Matt Lieberman (The Christmas Chronicles, Scoob!), Free Guy will hit theaters in the prime blockbuster season of July 2020.
Though Free Guy isn’t based on any previously established property, it does have a talented cast on board, headlined by Deadpool and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu star Reynolds. He’s joined by Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Lil Rel Howery (Bird Box), Utkarsh Ambudkar (Brittany Runs a Marathon) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok). Levy and the majority of the film’s cast appeared at New York Comic Con 2019, where they unveiled the Free Guy poster and a video introducing the cast to potential viewers. This weekend, Free Guy appears at Comic Con Experience in Sãu Paulo, Brazil, where the film’s first teaser trailer debuted.
The first Free Guy movie trailer reveals Reynolds’ Guy, the NPC in a video game named Free City. The mild-mannered bank teller begins to gain sentience and realize he lives within the world of a video game. Amid his adventures, he meets other video game characters, some of whom are avatars for real people. Check out the Free Guy trailer below.
As revealed in the Free Guy trailer, Reynolds stars in the film as Guy, who gets tired of his normal life - one that includes bank robberies and hostage situations on a daily basis. When he decides to stray from his typical path, he learns that he’s a character in a video game and sets out to become a hero within his world. He finds an ally in Comer’s character, while Waititi’s appears to be more of an obnoxious villain type. As further referenced in this trailer, Free Guy is a 20th Century Fox movie that now falls under Disney’s purview since Disney acquired Fox’s movie and TV assets earlier this year.
So far, Disney hasn’t had much success with the Fox blockbusters they’ve released since the deal finalized, as both Dark Phoenix and Ad Astra flopped at the box office. However, it could be argued that both of those movies struggled from various behind-the-scenes or marketing issues. In the case of Free Guy, Reynolds, Fox and Disney seem to be leaning into the actor’s irreverent sense of humor, as seen in the opening joke about Disney releasing Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast twice (once as animated movies and once as live-action). For a tongue-in-cheek action comedy like Free Guy, which both honors and pokes fun at video gaming culture, it’s an excellent tone for the first trailer. Still, we’ll have to wait and see if it’s effective with casual audiences when Free Guy hits theaters next summer.
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Source: 20th Century Fox
- Free Guy Release Date: 2021-08-13
