John Cena's the new Barbie, if you look at his Apple TV action movie the right way
Matchbox The Movie? Sure, Mattel, go for it
When the Barbie movie hit so spectacularly in 2023, it was pretty immediately obvious to some observers that we'd probably get more movies based on nostalgic toys in its aftermath. In fact, Barbie creator Mattel was quick to confirm that it had more plans on that front, including a movie based on its Matchbox cars.
Whether you thought that sounded preposterous or not, fast-forward by a couple of years and here we are – Matchbox The Movie has a trailer, and it's coming to Apple TV on 9 October, so it's very much real. That trailer won't really surprise you if you've thought about what a Matchbox movie might look like, but it does have some interesting touches.
The biggest selling point, you'd imagine, is John Cena in the lead – the WWE superstar has long since proved that he can helm a movie capably, and his comic timing remains underrated. He had a cameo in Barbie, as you might remember, so it fits that Mattel tapped him up this time.
That said, he's not alone. Rounding out the cast are Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Arturo Castro and Teyonah Parris; they're playing the grown-up versions of a friendship group that Cena was part of as a young boy, with fond memories of playing with toy cars together. Now, Cena's character is a spy who needs to track down a missing warhead, and somehow needs his friends' help to do it.
It's all relatively preposterous, of course, and more than a little reminiscent of the Fast & Furious franchise – but that's what Apple will be hoping for. After all, with that mega-series on basically a hiatus right now, there's a gap in the market for gas-fuelled action movies featuring many, many car crashes.
That said, this is a Skydance production, which is becoming something of a warning label in this streaming era. The fact that it's heading straight to Apple TV instead of hitting cinemas first isn't the best sign, but we might know more when forthcoming trailers give us more to go on.
