IF: Release date, trailer, cast, plot & more

❘ Published: 2023-12-15T15:40:04

Paramount Pictures

Imaginary friends come to life in IF, a new family blockbuster from John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds – here’s its release date, trailer, cast, plot details, and more.

Krasinski rose to fame playing Jim, the loveable, prank-prone slacker and Pam’s other half in The Office. While he appeared in other comedic roles, the late 2010s marked a significant shift in his career: he became a straight-up action hero in 13 Hours and Jack Ryan, and most notably, he directed one of the highest-grossing horror movies of all time with A Quiet Place.

Between cameos in the MCU and expanding his Quiet Place franchise, the actor-filmmaker has cranked out a new original story with an all-star cast: IF, a movie that asks… what happens when you get too old for your imaginary friends?

With the film recently dropping its first viral trailer, here’s everything you need to know about IF, including its release date and more. “Are you ready for this?”

IF release date

IF will be released on May 24, 2024.

The project was first announced in October 2019, with Paramount Pictures outbidding Sony and Lionsgate to win the rights to the film.

IF trailer

The first trailer for IF was released on December 14, 2023, and you can check it out below:

The teaser opens with Reynolds’ character tip-toeing through a child’s bedroom to find Blue, an enormous, furry IF (imaginary friend). However, a young girl on the street sees them and ends up passing out when another IF speaks to her.

Blue explains that he’s part of a group of IFs who outgrew their kids, so now they’re working together to find new children in need of a friend.

It opened to an extraordinary reception for an original IP, with Reynolds garnering more than five million views across X/Twitter and YouTube, and further millions across Paramount’s official channels.

IF cast: Who’s in it?

IF features a star-studded studded cast, including:

Ryan Reynolds as the Man Upstairs
Cailey Fleming as Bea
Steve Carrell as Blue
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Louis Gossett Jr.
Emily Blunt
Matt Damon
Maya Rudolph
Jon Stewart
Sam Rockwell
Sebastian Maniscalco
Christopher Meloni
Richard Jenkins
Awkwafina
Vince Vaughn

While Reynolds has jokingly referred to IF as a “heart-warming, all-family film from the director of A Quiet Place, the star of Deadpool, and the studio that brought you Annihilation”, he’s been involved in its development for years.

“This is a movie that John and I have been talking about for years now, something that feels a bit like a live-action Pixar film,” he said in a behind-the-scenes featurette.

IF plot: What is it about?

The official synopsis reads: “IF is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends – and what she does with that superpower – as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids.”

In an earlier interview with Collider, Krasinski said he wanted to make IF for his kids, “because I don’t think they’re allowed to see A Quiet Place; Emily [Blunt] calls it PG-40, ‘You’ll get to see it when you’re 40!’

“So I had to make a movie that they could see, and I’m really, really excited about it. I mean, Ryan Reynolds is as good as it gets in every single way, shape and form, and this incredible phenom of an actress, Cailey Fleming, is in the movie.

“For me, it was just about what if we could tell a story about these time capsules? Imaginary friends are adorable and all those things, but they’re also time capsules of your hopes, dreams, and ambitions when you were the most fertile of a brain, and it never goes away. I think we’re told that we’re adults instead of what if you realize that you never stopped being a kid.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he explained how he was “so enamored by the world that my kids were going to by themselves. They were off on their own and clearly deep in imagination, whether it was a game, whether it was painting, whether it was doing art, all this stuff. They went into this locked-in place that I wish I could have visited.

“I just told [produer Allyson Seeger], ‘I have this weird idea that we should do something where imaginary friends are not just adorable creatures. They’re these time capsules for everyone’s hopes, dreams, ambitions, and this place that we can always go back to that we all think that as adults we leave behind, but we didn’t. They’re right there. We just have to turn around and look at them again.'”

IF hits cinemas on May 24, 2024. Check out our other upcoming TV and movie hubs below: