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By Alex Kirschenbaum
Contributing Entertainment Writer
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Joker alum Zazie Beetz is making her case for solo movie stardom with Warner Bros.’ new comedic action thriller They Will Kill You.
The first flick produced under It filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti's new production shingle Nocturna, They Will Kill You stars Beetz as a housekeeper hired to work in an ominously retro Manhattan skyscraper.
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Fans can check out the full red band trailer, newly released this week, here.
As many trailers these days are wont to do, this one seems to give away the twist: Beetz is just the latest hire intended for sacrifice by the Satanic cult that employs her and runs the building. It’s a delicate needle to thread for modern movies — they don’t want to divulge too much narrative, but they also need to entice audiences.
But Beetz, invariably, has other plans. She gets increasingly, comically more blood-spattered as her adventures progress.
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Presumably, a few other twists and setpieces were left on the cutting room floor for the quick-cutting trailer.
Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette (Boyhood, Stigmata, True Romance), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series), and Heather Graham (Bowfinger, Boogie Nights) portray the nefarious Satanists. For Graham, this marks her second provocative genre venture since Joe Lynch's Shudder indie horror Suitable Flesh in 2023.
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Beetz, 34, broke out as Donald Glover's on-again, off-again girlfriend in the hit FX series Atlanta from 2016-22. She parlayed that into key co-starring turns in R-rated superhero blockbusters, Deadpool 2 and Joker, supplementing those hits with more esoteric work, including true-story dramas Seberg and Lucy in the Sky (although the latter is very fictionalized). She's also dipped a toe into animation, starring in Extinct and both The Bad Guys films.
Zazie Beetz’s Road to Action Stardom
Beetz has been warming up for her first actioner as the clear, headlining No. 1 for years.
After Deadpool 2, she submitted memorable co-starring roles in Netflix's star-studded Western The Harder They Fall and David Leitch's Brad Pitt assassin action-comedy blockbuster Bullet Train.
She has the right physical presence to be a convincing bad-ass, and from this They Will Kill You trailer, it looks like she’s found a way to convincingly pack a punch and deliver a zinger in effective harmony. She's also costarring in Gore Verbinski's forthcoming time-travel action comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, out in theaters next month.
They Will Kill You feels like the right career next step for Beetz. She's picking a high-concept genre vehicle during a movie “offseason” (in this case, early spring), produced by pedigreed hitmakers and loaded with what looks like impressive, practical stuntwork, to hopefully launch her to the next level. There should be respectable market interest in this tongue-in-cheek throwback excursion, and it doesn’t look like its budget broke the bank for Warner Bros. Our fingers are crossed the finished product hits the bar set by the trailer.
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