Chris Evans to star opposite Dwayne Johnson in Christmas action-comedy Red One
The upcoming film is scheduled for a 2023 holiday release
Chris Evans is teaming up with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for a holiday action-comedy from Amazon Studios. Deadline first reported news about his casting in the movie, currently titled Red One and set to be released at the end of 2023.
Deadline said of the movie, “[Red One] is a globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy, imagining a whole new universe to explore within the holiday genre,” but also added that more specific plot details are being kept under wraps. The movie will be directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji), and the screenplay was written by Chris Morgan, who has worked extensively on the Fast & Furious films.
What all that actually adds up to is anyone’s guess. Will The Rock play an ultra-buff Santa Claus, pushing his sleigh and reindeer to their absolute limit? Will Evans play some sort of elven superhero who has to save his best elf friend from a chunk of frozen ice? Will the starring duo get caught under some mistletoe? Only time will tell.
Evans most recently appeared briefly in Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. Earlier this month, it was announced that he might play Gene Kelly in a movie currently in development. He’ll also voice Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s confusing Toy Story spin-0ff Lightyear. Evans will star in the upcoming Apple feature Ghosted with Ana de Armas, and he’ll appear in the Russo Brothers’ new film The Gray Man for Netflix.
Evans also started a civic media organization A Starting Point, supposedly aimed at healing political divides and finding common ground. Last summer, they released a series of videos on the Middle East that some loudly decried as CIA propaganda.
Meanwhile, The Rock is coming off his own Netflix film, Red Notice, which apparently has two sequels in the works. This year he’ll voice Krypto the Superdog in DC League of Super-Pets, and star as Black Adam in the DC film of the same name.