Not all heroes wear capes — sometimes, they wear the same pair of khakis to work, every single day. Ryan Reynolds is an unexpected hero in the trailer for Free Guy, an upcoming action movie in which the Deadpool star plays a background character in a violent video game, who decides to change his fate after the bank he works at gets robbed for the 27th day in a row.
Described by Reynolds as a "a modern-day Back to the Future for this generation" at Comic Con Experience in Sao Paolo, Brazil on Saturday, Dec. 7, the movie follows Guy as he decides there has to be "something more" to his life, besides "being shot at, getting run over [and] being taken hostage" everyday. And once Guy decides to become a player in Free City, the open-world game in which he lives, it quickly becomes clear that he needs to step up and become the hero the city deserves, even if breaking people's arms makes him heave.
"Guy, this world, it's a video game. It's full of bad guys," says Jodie Comer's Milly, a programmer who is accidentally responsible for Guy's self-awareness and who appears in-game as Molotov Girl to help him save Free City.
Free Guy also stars Taika Waititi as Antoine, the creator of the video game, and Stranger Things star Joe Keery as Keys, another programmer working on the game. "He's a character with a beautiful arc," Keery said onstage at CCPX, per Deadline. "He is on the sidelines not actively living their life." The actor added that Free Guy is a story about taking control of your life and going after what you want, and that he feels, "it’s a great sentiment to walk away with."
Keery isn't alone in his love for the movie; back in October, Reynolds told the crowd at New York Comic Con that "I haven't been this fully immersed, engaged and pumped [about] something since Deadpool." Still, director Shawn Levy explained at the time that Guy has a lot more in common with the infamous "merc with a mouth" than simply the actor who portrays them. "On a very literal level, Free Guy is about Guy, who's a bank teller. He works in a bank, and his bank gets robbed 17 times in a day, and eventually he realizes that's weird and not normal," the director explained.
"Ryan and I have talked about Free Guy as a superhero origin story without the cape and tights and the [intellectual property]," he continued. "If you were living in a video game and could master the system, your powers would be limitless."
While Guy might not be quite as prepared to become a superhero as Wade Wilson, based on the trailer for Free Guy, it seems like Reynolds' character will have just as much humor, wit and slightly-nauseating action sequences to tide audiences over as they wait for Deadpool 3 to be released.
