Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are coming home. The Massachusetts natives are set to star in The Instigators, a new crime thriller comedy set in Boston. The Instigators is the latest collaboration between Damon and Affleck, as the pair have worked together on numerous Academy Award-winning projects including Good Will Hunting, Manchester by the Sea, and Oppenheimer. Another reunion comes in the form of Damon and director Doug Liman, as Liman directed Damon in his first run as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity. Apple TV+ acquired the rights to this project back in December 2022 and wasted no time to get cameras rolling, as production kicked off in March 2023.
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The Instigators Debuts First Trailer
The 617 will never be the same.
Apple TV+ has unveiled the first trailer for Matt Damon and Casey Affleck’s The Instigators. The fresh footage follows Damon’s Rory as he sits through a therapy session before arriving at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox. From there, Affleck’s Cobby and Michael Stuhlbarg’s Mr. Besegai are introduced to pitch Rory a heist mission to loot Mayor Miccelli’s (Ron Perlman) election night party. Chaos ensues after the group pulls off the robbery, as Rory ominously warns that “everybody in New England is after us.”
You can watch the full trailer below…
The aforementioned talent are just a couple of A-List names involved in this project. The Instigators also stars Alfred Molina, Paul Walter Hauser, Toby Jones, Hong Chau, Ving Rhames, and features platinum recording artist Jack Harlow in just his second feature film role. Harlow made his acting debut last summer in a remake of White Men Can’t Jump.
The Instigators‘s talent continues behind the camera as well. Academy Award winner Ben Affleck, a longtime collaborator of Damon and brother of Casey, is attached as a producer.
Beyond being a homecoming for Damon and Affleck, The Instigators looks to add itself to a long list of cherished Boston-based crime thrillers. Films like Mystic River, The Departed, The Town, Gone Baby Gone, Black Mass, and Patriots Day are just a few of the critically-acclaimed pictures to use Boston as their backdrop. Damon starred in the Best Picture-winning The Departed while Affleck led the Academy Award-nominated Gone Baby Gone.
The Instigators debuts in select theaters on August 2nd and premieres on Apple TV+ on August 9th.
