Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds are currently riding high following the success of Free Guy, which has held the top spot at the domestic box office for the last two weekends, garnering enough critical acclaim to see aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes name it as one of the best action comedies ever made.
Whether you agree with that sentiment or not is entirely down to personal preference, but based on how the video game-inspired blockbuster turned out, audiences would love to see the duo collaborate again in the future. As chance would have it, not only is a Free Guy sequel already in development, but the duo’s time traveling Netflix adventure The Adam Project wrapped production this past March, and in a new interview Levy confirmed we can expect to see it during the first quarter of 2022.
“You’re going to see a trailer this year, without question, you’re going to see the movie on Netflix in the first quarter of next year. Ryan and I are really excited about this one. It is basically what if you could go back in time and befriend your 12-year-old self and your parents whose age you currently are. So it’s Ryan Reynolds going back to now 2021/22 meeting his 12-year-old self and Mark Ruffalo and Jen Garner, who are his mom and dad.”
Walter Scobell’s Adam discovers an injured pilot outside his house, who turns out to be himself from the future. The youngster and Reynolds then partner up to solve a conspiracy surrounding their father’s mysterious disappearance, with Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner as his parents, while additional support comes from Zoe Saldana and Katherine Keener.
Levy also went on to detail the influences behind The Adam Project, and there’s a couple of surprising reference points thrown in alongside the requisite Back to the Future nod.
“Obviously there’s a load of action and really all the things we want from a time travel adventure movie, but it’s ultimately very much a descendant of Frequency and Field of Dreams. And the fun of it is very much kind of Back to the Future-inspired, but the heart of it is more Frequency and Field of Dreams.
Because imagine if you could go and have empathy for your parents now that you know what you know as an adult. Imagine being able to tell your kid self, ‘Yo buddy, you’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay’. It literally gives me goosebumps because this is a fundamental human journey. And this Jonathan Tropper screenplay taps into that yearning, but in the vessel of just rad big budget action adventure.”
Reynolds is in the midst of a hot streak following the success of Detective Pikachu, Hobbs & Shaw and Free Guy, with The Adam Project part of an even more exciting upcoming slate that also includes fellow Netflix blockbuster Red Notice and Deadpool 3, so at least we now know that we’ll be seeing his next star vehicle in just a few months.