You’re not imagining things. Paramount Pictures released the final trailer for IF, the new original comedy hitting theaters onMay 17. Written, directed, and produced by A Quiet Place filmmaker John Krasinski, the story you have to believe to see is about Bea (Cailey Fleming), a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends —and what she does with that superpower —as she embarks on a magicaladventure with her upstairs neighbor (Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Ryan Reynolds) to reconnect forgottenIFs withtheir kids.
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The IFs may be imaginary, but they’re played by an ensemble cast of Reynolds and Krasinski’s real-life friends. The star-studded roster includes the voices of Steve Carell (The Office) as Blue, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as Blossom, and late Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman) as Lewis, with Fiona Shaw (the Harry Potter films) and Alan Kim (Minari) among the human cast. IF also features the voices of Emily Blunt, Blake Lively, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Maya Rudolph, Bradley Cooper, Jon Stewart, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Awkwafina, Amy Schumer, Richard Jenkins, Keegan Michael Key, Matthew Rhys, Christopher Meloni, and Krasinski as a cavalcade of IFs.
Reynolds has described IF as “a live-action Pixar film.” Krasinski, who reunites with his Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and A Quiet Place producers Andrew Form and Allyson Seeger, pitched the family-friendly comedy as a movie made for — and inspired by — his children.
“I figured I needed to make a movie for my kids. Seeing as though Quiet Place is like PG-40 in our house — they won’t see Quiet Place till they’re 40 — I figured I should make one for them,” Krasinski told EWabout his horror hit. “I was so enamored by the world that my kids weregoing to by themselves. They were off on their own and clearly deep inimagination, whether it was a game, whether it was painting, whether itwas doing art, all this stuff. They went into this locked-in place that Iwish I could have visited.”
He added: “I just told [them], ‘I have this weird idea that we should do somethingwhere imaginary friends are not just adorable creatures. They’re thesetime capsules for everyone’s hopes, dreams, ambitions, and this placethat we can always go back to that we all think that as adults we leavebehind, but we didn’t. They’re right there. We just have to turn aroundand look at them again.’”
IF is playing only in theaters May 17.
