Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinki’s If Gets New Release Date

If, the Ryan Reynolds/John Krasinski comedy originally titled Imaginary Friends, just got a new release date — and one that seems likely to bode well for its box office potential. The movie, which was set to release on May 24, 2024 is now opening on May 17, 2024 instead. That means the Paramount movie will not only come out a week earlier, but that it will no longer face competition from the studio’s own as-yet-untitled SpongeBob SquarePants sequel, which moved off the original release to become a holiday 2024 release. The moves were part of a larger overall move by the studio to reshuffle its release schedule in response to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

The movie, which was originally announced in 2019, centers on “the tale of a man who can see and talk to people’s imaginary friends, befriending those that have been forgotten or discarded. However, some imaginary friends, lacking love and friendship, turn to the dark side, and it’s up to Reynolds’ character to save the world from those that become evil.”

Reynolds is no stranger to movies with long development, of course; Deadpool took years, and felt like a pipe dream, right up until someone leaked CGI test footage to the Internet and it went wildly viral. Now, almost a decade later, Deadpool 3 has been hit with a series of delays — first relating to Disney’s purchase of Fox, and now a result of the writers and actors strikes.

The latest Deadpool 3 delay was announced last week, with the character’s creator Rob Liefeld poking fun at it yesterday in a birthday message to Reynolds.

Imaginary Friends was rebranded to If along the way which, for old-school movie fans, is an odd choice since the title is closely associated with Lindsay Anderson’s If…, an award-winning movie about an antisocial British private school student who eventually shoots his school up in the third act. The movie was the first notable film appearance of legendary actor Malcolm McDowell, and his first collaboration with Anderson, who also directed the actor in O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.

Krasinski, the director of A Quiet Place, will see that franchise expand in 2024, with A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel starring Lupita Nyong’o. He also has A Quiet Place Part III planned for 2025. Reynolds remains active as a pitchman for his numerous brands, including Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile, both of which he has an ownership stake in, along with the Wrexham Association Football Club, which he co-owns with Rob McElhenney.