Ryan Reynolds’ “Imaginary Friend” Is the Real John Krasinski in Playful IF Movie Spot

Imagine if Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski teamed for a new movie about imaginary friends? Like Krasinski — who writes, directs, and produces — IF is very real. “My new movie is about imaginary friends, and I actually still have one,” Reynolds says in a video he shared on social media. “He’s tall, and he directed A Quiet Place.” Cut to Krasinski sitting nearby, who reminds Reynolds that he’s real. “I wish you could see him,” the Deadpool 3 star replies. But you don’t have to imagine the humorous exchange: you can watch it in the video below and get a peek at the star-studded cast behind the IFs. 

IF, from the imagination of Krasinski, is about Bea (The Walking Dead‘s Cailey Fleming), a young girl whodiscovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what shedoes with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure toreconnect forgotten IFs with their kids. Reynolds has described IF as “a live-action Pixar film.”

Alongside Reynolds, Fleming, and Krasinski, the cast of CG-animated IFs includes Steve Carell (The Office) as Blue, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) as Blossom, Sam Rockwell (Argylle) as SDog, and Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: Organized Crime) as Cosmo. The all-star ensemble also includes Fiona Shaw (the Harry Potter films) and the voices of Emily Blunt (The Fall Guy), Matt Damon (Oppenheimer), Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live), Awkwafina (Kung Fu Panda 4), Louis Gossett Jr. (Watchmen), Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water), Sebastian Maniscalco (The Super Mario Bros. Movie), and Jon Stewart (The Daily Show). 

“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 EW about his horror hit. “I was so enamored by the world that my kids were going to bythemselves. They were off on their own and clearly deep in imagination,whether it was a game, whether it was painting, whether it was doingart, all this stuff. They went into this locked-in place that I wish Icould have visited.”

Krasinski pitched the family-friendly IF to his producer Allyson Seeger (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and then to Paramount Pictures, which will release the film in theaters this May.

“I just told her, ‘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,’” Krasinski said.

IF is only in theaters May 17.