Hollywood history is littered with disappointing video game adaptations, so Ryan Reynolds and company are taking a different approach with Free Guy, a video game-inspired movie that will release exclusively in theaters on Aug. 13.
Free Guy is not based on any particular video game, but rather the world of video games, the people who play them and the characters that make them up.
Reynolds plays Guy, an NPC (non playable character for us video game laymans) who after discovering that he is in a video game that is set to be shut down, breaks from his usual routine and works to save the only world he’s ever known.
Joining Reynolds in the action-comedy is Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Taika Waititi, Joe Keery and Utkarsh Ambudkar. Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Night at the Museum) directed the movie.
This new Free Guy trailer gives us a little more sense of the plot and some of the set pieces that Reynolds’ Guy will take on to save the video game world. Check out the trailer for yourself below.
Free Guy was originally slated to come out in 2020, but was part of the continuous reshuffling of the movie release calendar due to the pandemic. It is now one of the more anticipated 2021 summer blockbusters, and one that is choosing to forgo a simultaneous streaming play and have an exclusive first-run in movie theaters.
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Free Guy is a 20th Century Studios film, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. Disney, like many studios, has been experimenting with different releasing strategies for streaming and theaters, including releasing in theaters and simultaneously making streaming available on Disney Plus for a $30 fee, like it did with Cruella and plans to do with Black Widow.
The movies will see a lot of Ryan Reynolds this summer, as the actor also has The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard releasing on June 16.
