Mattel’s iconic cars are getting the big screen treatment. Apple Original Films, Skydance Media and Mattel Studios dropped the first trailer for Matchbox during Apple TV’s Comic-Con Hall H panel Saturday, unveiling the action comedy that sends a group of childhood friends on an international mission to save the world. The film premieres October 9 on Apple TV.
Cena leads an ensemble that includes Sam Richardson, Teyonah Parris, Danai Gurira, Jessica Biel, Arturo Castro, Golshifteh Farahani, Corey Stoll and Bill Camp. Cena, Biel, Richardson, Parris and Castro all appeared at the Hall H panel Saturday.
Directed by Sam Hargrave, the filmmaker behind Netflix’s Extraction franchise, Matchbox follows Sean, an undercover CIA agent played by John Cena, who returns to his small hometown and the childhood friends he left behind years ago. The reunion takes a sharp turn when Sean’s enemies close in and he inadvertently drags his crew into the kind of globe-trotting, life-threatening pursuit none of them signed up for. Shot across Budapest, Casablanca, Slovakia and Los Angeles, the film leans into large-scale car chases and international action rooted in the spirit of the iconic toy line.
The trailer, set to a stripped version of Ludacris’ “Rollout,” opens on five friends as kids playing with Matchbox cars, a crew who called themselves the Matchbox Gang, then flashes forward to adulthood and a dinner reunion that ends with the group waking up on a plane. From there they discover that their old friend Sean is a spy, a nuclear warhead is missing, and the CIA thinks they took it. What follows is a frantic, globe-trotting escapade where their childhood bond, and the imagination forged by years of playing with those toy cars, becomes their greatest asset.
The screenplay was written by David Coggeshall, whose credits include The Family Plan and Orphan: First Kill. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger produce through Skydance Media alongside Robbie Brenner and Ynon Kreiz through Mattel Studios and Jules Daly. Hargrave executive produces alongside Patrick Newall and Elizabeth Bassin.
Matchbox premieres October 9 on Apple TV.