'Free Guy' Trailer: Ryan Reynolds Is A Non-Player Video Game Character Who Becomes A Hero

Free Guy, the film that looks like a mix between The LEGO Movie, Wreck-It Ralph, and The Matrix, has itself a new, loud trailer. Ryan Reynolds plays a normal, boring guy who has spent his entire existence blissfully unaware that he's actually a non-player character in a video game. But that's about to change. But his entire worldview is about to come crashing down, with a little help from Killing Eve breakout Jodie Comer.

I like Ryan Reynolds. He seems like a nice fellow, and that makes sense since he's Canadian. That said, I also feel like Reynolds is kind of stuck. Ever since Deadpool made him a huge star again he's been trapped in Deadpool mode, where every character he plays now feels like Deadpool without the Deadpool costume. And that trend appears to be continuing with Free Guy, a new comedy from director Shawn Levy.

In Free Guy, Reynolds plays "a bank teller who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game, decides to become the hero of his own story...one he rewrites himself. Now in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way...before it is too late." And he gets a little help from a much more capable character in the game, played by Jodie Comer, AKA Villanelle from Killing Eve. (She's also Rey's mom in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but we're not going to talk about that.) In truth, I'd rather watch a movie with this premise starring Comer instead of Reynolds, but we can't always get what we want.

Free Guy looks like it has potential, although there sure is a lot of yelling in this trailer, and that could be a problem. Let's try to settle down, folks! It also looks a bit derivative of movies like The LEGO Movie, Wreck-It Ralph, The Matrix, and even John Carpenter's They Live, what with the glasses Reynolds starts wearing to see the "real" world around him. There's even a scene in here where Comer gives Reynolds the magic glasses in an alley, which is also the setting where Roddy Piper tried to give Keith David magic sunglasses in They Live – before they broke into a lengthy, brutal fist-fight.

I never thought there would be a big action-comedy from Disney that references They Live, but we here are!

In addition to Reynolds and Comer, Free Guy also features Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Taika Waititi. The official press release also mentions that "Some of the video gaming world's most influential figures drop in for cameos," including Imane "Pokimane" Anys, Lannan "LazarBeam" Eacott, Seán William "Jacksepticeye" McLoughlin, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, and Daniel "DanTDM" Middleton. But since I am both an old, old man and someone who doesn't play video games, I have no idea who those folks are.

Shawn Levy directs a script from Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn. Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy, Sarah Schechter, Greg Berlanti, and Adam Kolbrenner produce, with Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, George Dewey, Dan Levine, and Michael Riley McGrath serving as executive producers.

Free Guy hits theaters on August 13, 2021.