Coyote vs. Acme Movie News: Release & Updates

By USA Film News Staff

Warner Bros. Pictures has dropped the first trailer for “Coyote vs. Acme,” and the live-action/animation hybrid looks to be one of the more unconventional legal comedies in recent memory. The footage, released Monday morning, introduces audiences to a new kind of courtroom underdog: Wile E. Coyote, who has finally had enough of his malfunctioning ACME Corporation purchases.

Set for release on August 21, 2026, the film clocks in at 103 minutes and blends genres including comedy, adventure, mystery, family entertainment, and animation. Directed by Dave Green, best known for “Earth to Echo” and the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” sequel, the project has been in various stages of development since before the pandemic, with rumors of shelving and revival dogging its path to theaters.

The premise is deceptively simple: after countless failed attempts to catch the Roadrunner - each one undone by faulty ACME rockets, anvils, and roller skates - Wile E. Coyote decides to take corporate action. He hires a billboard lawyer to sue the Acme Corporation for its consistently defective merchandise.

A Legal Team with Looney Tunes Energy

The human cast is led by Will Forte, who plays Kevin Avery, the down-on-his-luck attorney that the Coyote recruits. Forte brings his signature blend of frantic optimism and slight desperation to the role, a character who sees the case as his last shot at professional relevance.

Lana Condor co-stars as Paige Avery, Kevin’s sharp daughter and legal assistant who provides the brains behind the operation. Tone Bell rounds out the core legal team as Sal Maltese, a rival lawyer with his eyes on the same high-profile case. John Cena appears as Buddy Crane, an ACME executive who finds himself directly in the Coyote’s crosshairs.

The voice cast is anchored by Eric Bauza, the current go-to performer for classic Looney Tunes characters. Bauza voices no fewer than five icons: Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Bugs Bunny. This suggests a broader Looney Tunes universe within the film, with multiple familiar faces - and voices - appearing to either help or hinder the Coyote’s legal crusade.

P.J. Byrne plays Bill Pellicanos, a character described in early production notes as a slick corporate lawyer representing ACME. Martha Kelly takes on the role of Dottie Jones, likely a court clerk or paralegal caught in the chaos. Luis Guzmán rounds out the cast as Judge Troppogrosso, the jurist presiding over what promises to be the most anarchic trial in cinematic history.

From Development Hell to the Big Screen

The path to release for “Coyote vs. Acme” has been anything but smooth. Originally conceived during a period when Warner Bros. was aggressively developing its animation and hybrid properties, the film was reportedly considered for a tax write-off at one point, a decision that provoked considerable backlash from animation fans and industry professionals alike.

Director Dave Green has spoken in the past about his affection for the source material, noting that the film aims to honor the slapstick legacy of Chuck Jones and the original Looney Tunes shorts while introducing a modern legal-comedy framework. The trailer suggests Green has achieved that balance: scenes of classic ACME product failure intercut with courtroom arguments, depositions, and one particularly memorable sequence where Wile E. presents a montage of failed traps as evidence.

The film is not a direct sequel to 2003’s “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” nor a spin-off of the 2021 “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” despite sharing Bauza’s voice work. Instead, it occupies its own pocket of the Warner Bros. animation universe, one where the physical laws of cartoon mayhem are permitted to coexist with the procedural realities of civil litigation.

What the Trailer Reveals

The trailer opens with a compilation of classic ACME product failures - rockets that explode on launch, spring-loaded shoes that snap backward, magnetic traps that attract the wrong target - before cutting to Wile E. Coyote sitting in a law office, pointing at a contract with a paw.

“I’m tired of being the punchline,” he appears to write on a whiteboard, though the Coyote does not speak in the traditional sense. The film reportedly uses physical comedy, subtitled notes, and expressive animation to communicate his dialogue, a choice that preserves the character’s silent-but-cunning persona.

Forte’s Kevin Avery delivers the trailer’s key line: “So you’re telling me a multi-billion-dollar corporation sold you a rocket that can only fly backward? That’s not a defect - that’s false advertising.”

The trailer also teases courtroom cameos from several Looney Tunes characters. Bugs Bunny appears briefly in the gallery, eating a carrot and winking. Daffy Duck can be seen in a lawyer’s suit, apparently serving as opposing counsel. Foghorn Leghorn protests loudly from a spectator seat.

With a TMDb rating still at zero pending public screening reactions, the film remains a question mark in terms of critical reception. But if the trailer is any indication, “Coyote vs. Acme” aims to be something rare: a family film that doubles as a satire of corporate negligence, with a centuries-old cartoon coyote serving as the unlikely voice of consumer advocacy.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter