Strays Trailer: Will Ferrell Voices A Dog Who Wants To Bite Will Forte's Junk Off

Director Josh Greenbaum's hilarious and absurd "Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar" was released directly to streaming in 2021, as the pandemic raged around us and the future of the theatrical experience was being called into serious question. Even watching it at home, the movie felt like a gift, providing audiences a much-needed laugh during an exceptionally bleak time in human history. Now, as society has entered its next chapter, Greenbaum is back with an R-rated comedy that will debut in theaters — and its filthy first trailer has arrived.

"Strays" tells the story of Reggie (the voice of Will Ferrell), a happy-go-lucky dog whose owner, Doug (Will Forte), is a horrible person who treats Reggie like absolute garbage. When Reggie is abandoned and ends up in the big city, he meets other dogs and discovers that he's now a stray. But Reggie isn't content with his new lot in life: Instead, he recruits his new pals to go on a revenge mission — one that could end up with Doug getting his comeuppance in a fairly graphic manner. Is this the very first studio movie about a protagonist who literally wants to bite the villain's junk off? It may well be! Check out the newly released trailer below.

Will Ferrell seems to be back in "Elf" mode here, playing an innocent who wanders into the big wide world and discovers things aren't exactly as he assumed. For a guy who helped pioneer the modern "man child" archetype in cinema, roles like this are a great way to showcase a more genuine riff on that type of persona, one that's focused more on heart and emotional resonance than brash or grotesque humor.

(Side note: Please, for the love of all that is good in this universe, can we put like a ten year moratorium on wacky, over-the-top drug trip sequences in studio comedies? They're never as entertaining as the filmmakers imagine, and it's seriously starting to feel like writers are just putting these scenes in movies to appease some sort of focus group requirement instead of them being in there as a revealing or necessary part of the story being told. OK, rant over.)

"Strays" is written by Dan Perrault, one of the co-creators of the Peabody Award-winning, cancelled-too-soon Netflix true crime riff "American Vandal" and the surprisingly solid e-sports mockumentary series "Players." It's produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller ("Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," "The LEGO Movie"), and Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, and Randall Park round out the rest of the main cast.

"Strays" will hit theaters on June 9, 2023.