Honey Don't!: release date, trailer, cast and what we know

Margaret Qualley in Honey Don't! (Image credit: Focus Features)

While I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get another Coen Brothers movie sometime in the future, Ethan Coen is continuing with his solo directing efforts with the 2025 new movie Honey Don't!, reteaming with his Drive-Away Dolls star Margaret Qualley.

As we said in our Drive-Away Dolls review, part of what made the movie appealing was that it was reminiscent of the kind of comedies that the Coen Brothers have made throughout their careers. Though with Coen partnering on the script with his wife Tricia Cooke, there was a freshness to it as well. Honey Don't! is another dark comedy, with a mystery component added into the mix, which feels right up Ethan Coen’s alley.

Read on for everything you need to know about Honey Don't!

Honey Don't! release date

Focus Features is releasing Honey Don't! exclusively in US movie theaters on August 22; a release date for the UK is still TBD.

Prior to its release in movie theaters, Honey Don't!is going to get a special screening at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. That’s just part of the reason as to why we have it as one of our indie movies to watch in summer 2025.

Honey Don't! cast

Margaret Qualley has been tapped to play the lead role of Honey O’Donahue in Honey Don't! As we said, Qualley previously starred in Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, but she is also known for The Substance, Kinds of Kindness, Maid, Fosse/Verdon and The Leftovers.

Also starring in the movie are Aubrey Plaza (My Old Ass), Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Billy Eichner (Bros) and Chris Evans (Materialists).

Honey Don't! plot

From an original script by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, here is the official synopsis for Honey Don’t!:

“Honey Don't! is a dark comedy about Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.”

Honey Don’t! trailer

The Honey Don't trailer is now available online. Give it a watch below:

HONEY DON'T - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters August 22 - YouTube

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Ethan Coen movies

While Honey Don't! is only his second solo directed feature narrative movie, Ethan Coen is one of the most revered filmmakers around due to his long partnership with his brother, Joel Coen. All of the movies below were co-directed by the Coen Brothers (even though because of a DGA technicality, Ethan Coen was uncredited on some of the earlier movies), save for the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in the Mind and Drive-Away Dolls:

Blood Simple (1984)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Barton Fink (1991)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Fargo (1996)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
The Ladykillers (2004)
Paris, Je T’aime (2006)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Burn After Reading (2008)
A Serious Man (2009)
True Grit (2010)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in the Mind (2022)
Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Honey Don't! behind the scenes

Honey Don't! is a Focus Features and Working Title Films co-production, with Coen, Cooke, Robert Graf, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner serving as producers.