Game on! Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer star in first Free Guy trailer

Ever since two Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi ventured onto the big screen, videogame movies have been notoriously bad. It’s considered a curse in the industry. But here comes a new perspective: an original movie about videogames.

The first Free Guy trailer reveals Deadpool‘s Ryan Reynolds and Killing Eve‘s Jodie Comer in a virtual world. From director Shawn Levy, a longtime producer on Stranger Things and helmer on The Internship, comes this story about a guy named Guy (Reynolds). He’s a bank teller who yearns to break free from his increasingly boring life, but then he realizes why his life is so repetitive.

Guy is not actually, well, a guy. He’s a background character — a NPC (non-playable character), in gamer speak — within a brutal, open-world videogame called Free City, which is headed for cancellation. Guy becomes self-aware, which catches the eyes of the developers. Thus begins Guy’s mission to save his game and himself from termination.

In her first big Hollywood movie role since her breakthrough Emmy-winning performance as Villanelle in Killing Eve, Comer plays two characters in the film: Millie, one of the game’s developers, and Molotov Girl, Millie’s in-game avatar.

Appearing in various roles are Joe Keery (Stranger Things) as Keys, Utkarsh Ambudkar (Disney’s live-action Mulan) as Mouser, and Lil Rel Howery (Get Out) as Buddy, as well as Taika Waititi (Reynolds’ one-time Green Lantern costar) and videogame personality Ninja.

Free Guy is scheduled for theaters on July 3, 2020.

Related content:

• Ryan Reynolds turns videogame hero (or not) in first Free Guy footage and poster
• Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski uniting for new comedy Imaginary Friends
• Killing Eve star Jodie Comer on Villanelle’s killer finale move, what awaits in season 3