'Red One,' which stars Chris Evans, Dwayne Johnson and J.K. Simmons, opens in theaters Nov. 15.
Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson are suiting up to find Santa Claus in the first look at Red One.
A brand-new trailer for the 2024 holiday flick dropped on Tuesday and provided long-awaited context to the film which sees Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons playing a very buff St. Nick and Johnson, 52, acting as the head of security for "the man with the bag."
In the new trailer, Johnson's character, Callum Drift -- the "Commander of the E.L.F Task Force" according to a description of the movie -- assists Santa with bench press reps and helps him get ready for the big night before discovering that the infamous Christmas-associated character has been kidnapped from the North Pole.
"Someone took Red," Johnson says in the first minute of the trailer. "We're gonna find him."
Evans -- who plays master tracker Jack O'Malley -- is recruited by another member of the E.L.F team, Zoe (Lucy Liu), to help find "Red One" (aka Santa Claus) before time runs out and Christmas is ruined for millions of children around the world.
"Are you saying Santa Claus has been kidnapped?" Evans asks Liu and Johnson, laughing and expressing his disbelief.
"You can't trust this guy, he's on the list," Johnson tells Liu of Evans' character. "You don't mean--" Evans begins as the Moana actor cuts him off, "Yes, that list. NL-4."
"Are you telling me this clown is a level four naughty lister?" replies a polar bear bodyguard who roars in anger over Evans' character dismissing what is a very serious situation.
The rest of the trailer features Evans and Johnson getting up to major shenanigans, including using a little bit of holiday magic to turn a toy car into a driveable luxury vehicle, slapping Krampus -- the devilish companion to St. Nick from German lore -- and battling with mega-snowmen who have the ability to rebuild themselves, all set to a unique mashup of JAY-Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" and "Carol of the Bells."
"There's worse ways to go out than trying to save Santa Claus," Evans says in the nearly three-minute video dropped on Tuesday.
Aside from the obvious star power mentioned above, Red One also features Bonnie Hunt, Nick Kroll, Kiernan Shipka, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Marc Evan Jackson and Game of Thrones alum Kristofer Hivju. It is helmed by Jumangi: The Next Level director Jake Kasdan and written by Fast & Furious scribe Chris Morgan.
The film was originally slated to hit Amazon MGM Studios' streaming platform, Prime Video, in time for the 2023 holiday season but was ultimately pushed back a full year. At the time, those in charge cited the 118-day SAG-AFTRA strike as the reason for the postponement. The film was one of numerous projects delayed, including Luca Guadagnino's Challengers and Dune: Part 2.
Red One now sleigh-rides into theaters on Nov. 15.
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