Ryan Reynolds escapes digital chains in this exclusive Free Guy image

(Image credit: 20th Century)

Free Guy was not meant to be released this way. The Ryan Reynolds-starring comedy/actioner started life as a 20th Century Fox movie – before the studio was bought by Disney – and was set for release this Summer. Now, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the big-budget, big-scale flick, which sees Reynolds play a videogame NPC gone rogue, will be a Christmas release.

“I shudder to think that I would be as big of a thunderc**t to use a colossal global pandemic as a sort of means to find a valuable foothold for my movie,” Reynolds deadpans to our sister publication Total Film magazine.

“But I did notice that well before any of this shit happened I was already looking for entertainment outside of the norm for me. I mean, the world feels very hostile, very cynical and scary. So I found myself looking for entertainment that left me feeling better, left me walking out of a movie theatre where I’m walking on sunshine, instead of, you know, wondering how I might drink myself to sleep or something.”

The Free Guy script was that elixir for modern life when it came across his desk and – to hear him and his team talk about it – might be just the tonic cinemagoers yearn for when we finally make into back into the movie theatre. We have some exclusive images from Free Guy, the above featuring Reynolds and the below starring Taika Waititi, Jodie Comer, and Joe Keery.

“The absence of cynicism doesn’t equate to softness,” Reynolds insists of Free Guy. “It’s not soft, it’s got edge but, yeah, I was looking for something that leaves people with just a gigantic grin on their face...”

Read the extended interview with Reynolds – plus conversations with Comer, Waititi, and Keery – in the upcoming issue of Total Film, which hits shelves and digital on Friday, May 1. You can subscribe online here. Free Guy reaches cinemas December 11, 2020.

If you can’t make it to the shops, you can order a copy of the print magazine from this link from Friday. You can also subscribe to Total Film digitally on your tablet, and there’s currently an offer that allows you to get your first five digital issues for just £5/$5/€5. Head to this link to sign up (Black Widow issue available from April 3). Terms and conditions apply, offer runs until April 30, 2020. If you subscribe, you can get exclusive covers like the one below.

Jane Crowther is a freelance writer and the Editor-in-Chief at Hollywood Authentic magazine, having formerly been the longtime Editor of Total Film magazine. Jane is also the Chair of The Critics' Circle and a BAFTA member. You'll find Jane on GamesRadar+ exploring the biggest movies in the world and living up to her reputation as one of the most authoritative voices on film in the industry.