The Fall Guy Release Date, Cast, Plot, Trailer And More Details

Dust off that headshot and get ready for a few explosions — your dad's favorite stuntman turned bounty hunter is set to make a flashy, modern comeback in 2024's "The Fall Guy."

A film adaptation of the 1980s series has been in the works since 2010, when "Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell was circling the project under the leadership of DreamWorks and Touchstone Pictures. Their partnership never came to fruition, however, and the production team began courting director McG ("The Babysitter," "Terminator: Salvation") and actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Again, plans continued to dissolve, and development halted for a long while. Finally, in 2022, Universal announced that they had already begun production on an adaptation set to be released in 2024. It unites some of the freshest Hollywood talents with beloved favorites, all under the leadership of one of the world's most recognizable action directors.

Here's everything we know about the film so far.

Originally, "The Fall Guy" was slated for a March 1, 2024 release. However, after the SAG-AFTRA strike concluded, Marvel Studios decided to push back their lone 2024 offering — "Deadpool 3" — from May 3 to July 26. That opened up some prime box office real estate, and Universal decided to capitalize.

Now, "The Fall Guy" will open on Wade Wilson's old release date, hitting theaters on May 3. May will be an action-packed month, with titles like "Furiosa" and "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" coming out just a few weeks after "Fall Guy." Of course, if you're in the mood for high-stakes action, over-the-top comedy, and delightful romance, then circle that May 3 date.

"The Fall Guy" is based on an ABC action-adventure series of the same, which ran a total of five seasons during the '80s and starred Lee Majors ("The Six Million Dollar Man") as Hollywood stuntman Colt Seavers. In the show, Seavers did high-profile stunts during the day and worked as a bounty hunter during his off-hours, chasing down criminals in his impressive pickup truck.

While the series will keep the character of Colt Seavers, it's dropping the bounty hunter angle. Instead, he's a full-time stuntman who's drawn into an adventure far crazier than any movie he's ever worked on. Per the official plot synopsis, Colt is "a battle-scarred stuntman who, having left the business a year earlier to focus on his physical and mental health, is drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie — being directed by his ex, Jody Moreno — goes missing."

Now, Colt is being sent to find the missing star. After all, he's the man's double, so he can probably think like him and track him down, right? If Colt is successful, he'll impress his ex and get the movie running smoothly again before the media finds out about the A-list actor's disappearance. However, as Colt's search goes deeper, he finds himself "ensnared in a sinister, criminal plot that will push him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt."

Ryan Gosling will be filling Lee Majors' shoes, playing the part of Colt Seavers. Gosling is one of Hollywood's most sought-after leading men, especially after his fantastic turn as Ken in Greta Gerwig's "Barbie." British film star Emily Blunt will star as Jody Moreno, Colt's director and ex-girlfriend. The actress recently received plenty of attention for her turn in Christopher Nolan's biopic "Oppenheimer," which went head to head with Gosling's "Barbie."

Winston Duke of "Black Panther" fame will play Colt's stunt coordinator and friend, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson of "Bullet Train" will portray Ryder, the temperamental star who's gone missing. Stephanie Hsu of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" will portray his stressed-out assistant, and Hannah Waddingham of "Ted Lasso" will portray the ice cold producer who sends Colt on his mission to retrieve Taylor-Johnson's character.

Fittingly, "The Fall Guy" will be directed by David Leitch, a former stuntman ("The Bourne Ultimatum," "Fight Club") who's become a leader in the contemporary action genre. His official directorial debut was the 2017 Charlize Theron-led thriller "Atomic Blonde," after which he was tapped to helm the second installment of Fox and Marvel's "Deadpool" franchise (Leitch also provided motion capture work for the CGI character Juggernaut). Most recently, he directed and produced the 2022 action-comedy "Bullet Train," which starred Brad Pitt and Taylor Johnson.

As a former stuntman, getting the stunts just right for "The Fall Guy" was super important to Leitch. Speaking with Vanity Fair, the filmmaker explained, "Obviously in modern cinema we have the use of CGI, and we use it liberally. But when we're making a love letter to stunts and the blue-collar crews that make these movies come to life, we explored doing old-school high falls into airbags and jumping a car as far as we could and rolling a car as many times as we could."

Penning the screenplay is Drew Pearce, another frequent contributor to the action genre who previously partnered with Leitch on the 2019 "Fast and Furious" spin-off film, "Hobbs and Shaw." His big break came in 2013 when Marvel Studios brought him in to write the screenplay for Shane Black's polarizing sequel "Iron Man 3." Cinematographer Jonathan Sela will reunite with Leitch after working with him on five previous projects, including "Bullet Train." Series creator Glen A. Larson is attached as a producer, and you can also expect to hear the theme song from the TV show, performed by Blake Shelton.

The trailer for "The Fall Guy" is nearly 3 minutes and 30 seconds of high-octane action and hilarity, starting off with Colt Seavers doing an impressive car stunt that reunites him with his ex, Jody Moreno. The two haven't seen each other in a while, and Colt's sudden appearance on her movie set throws her for a bit of a loop. After all, she's working on a wild sci-fi Western and needs her focus ... but that gets complicated when action star Tom Ryder goes missing.

From there, we watch Colt do a series of elaborate stunts — leaping from a helicopter, getting himself lit on fire, and surviving some pretty scary explosions — but things get scarier when he finds a dead body in a bathtub full of ice. From there, we see Colt running from gunmen and getting involved in David Leitch-style fistfights. "I'm not the hero," Colt says, "I'm just the double." But today, Colt will have to put all his stunt skills to the test if he's going to get out of this adventure alive and win his old flame's affections.