Paramount Pictures has set a September 4, 2026 theatrical release for By Any Means, a 1960s-set action revenge thriller directed by Elegance Bratton and starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg. Entertainment Weekly has released the first official images from the film, offering an early glimpse at both leads in character.
Bratton, whose previous feature The Inspection earned widespread critical praise in 2022, co-wrote the script alongside Sascha Penn. The supporting cast includes Nicole Beharie, Giancarlo Esposito, David Strathairn, Josh Lucas, Ethan Embry, LisaGay Hamilton, and LaChanze.
Inspired by true events, the film follows a young Black FBI agent named Wayne Strider, played by Abdul-Mateen II, who is dispatched to 1960s Mississippi to investigate a wave of murders targeting civil rights leaders. He is forced into an unlikely alliance with Gregory Scarpa, a notorious Colombo crime family hitman portrayed by Wahlberg, as the two men navigate a deadly conspiracy that pushes the boundaries of justice and survival.
The real historical events centered on the FBI’s investigation into the disappearance and presumed murders of three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. Unable to locate their bodies through conventional means, the bureau reportedly turned to Scarpa, who was also an FBI informant, to extract information through more unconventional methods of interrogation.
Wahlberg is visibly transformed in the first-look photos, sporting tinted aviator glasses and longer hair combed into a side part to resemble the real Scarpa. Scarpa’s actual children, Gregory Scarpa Jr. and Linda Scarpa, served as advisors on the production. The resemblance was reportedly striking enough that Scarpa Jr. momentarily confused Wahlberg for his father upon seeing him during an early makeup test.
Wahlberg spent time with Scarpa’s family during production, a process he has said helped him better understand the man he was portraying. The elder Scarpa lived within a criminal underworld by its own code, while also being a father and husband, a duality that informed Wahlberg’s approach to the role.
Abdul-Mateen II’s Wayne Strider is described as a man of strong moral conviction trying to hold onto his principles while operating in a deeply corrupt environment. The dynamic between Strider and Scarpa forms the film’s emotional core, with the two characters representing contrasting philosophies: one standing for what is legally and morally right, the other for what is deemed necessary.
By Any Means also features the real-life story of Vernon Dahmer, a civil rights leader portrayed in the film by Giancarlo Esposito. Dahmer helped Black Americans register to vote and offered to cover their poll taxes, before being killed in 1966 when the Ku Klux Klan set fire to his home while his family was inside. The KKK also burned down his grocery store, where he maintained a voter registration book. Dahmer’s daughter, Bettie Dahmer, a survivor of the attack, was reportedly present on set the day that scene was filmed.
By Any Means opens in theaters September 4, 2026, over Labor Day weekend, where it will go head to head with Amazon MGM Studios’ How to Rob a Bank.
