If you have been following the whole saga around this film, you already know that just the fact that Coyote vs. Acme is coming out at all is kind of a miracle. The movie was finished, sitting on a shelf, and nearly gone forever, and now it has a release date, a poster, and a full trailer on the way.
Ketchup Entertainment, the studio that acquired and saved the film, released a short teaser clip to announce that the first official trailer for Coyote vs. Acme will arrive next week, on April 23, 2026. Coming off the back of years of frustration from fans and everyone involved in making it, that is genuinely exciting news.
The teaser of Coyote vs. Acme was timed with Tax Day in the US on April 15, and in it, Wile E. Coyote holds up a sign that reads “Happy Tax Day” before flipping it over to show the words “Check Your Write-Offs.” It is a very direct jab at Warner Bros., which had decided to shelve a fully completed $70 million film just to claim a $30 million tax write-off. The caption on the teaser read:
“Coyote vs. Acme has elected to file its trailer next week.”
Petty and funny, which honestly fits the character perfectly.
Coyote vs. Acme is scheduled to hit theaters on August 28, 2026, and is being distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, who acquired the worldwide rights from Warner Bros. in March 2025 for approximately $50 million.
The cast of Coyote vs. Acme and who are they playing?
The film is a live-action and animation hybrid, meaning you have real actors sharing the screen with cartoon characters. Will Forte plays Kevin Avery, a down-on-his-luck billboard lawyer who takes on Wile E. Coyote as his client and ends up going head-to-head with the Acme Corporation in court. John Cena plays Buddy Crane, the intimidating lawyer representing Acme, and, as it turns out, Kevin’s former boss. Lana Condor plays Paige Avery, Kevin’s niece.
Beyond those three leads, P.J. Byrne plays Bill Pellicano, another Acme lawyer, while Tone Bell plays Sal Maltese, Martha Kelly plays Dottie Jones, and Luis Guzman plays Judge Troppogrosso. It is an excellent cast of comedic actors, and the fact that John Cena (WWE wrestler gone Hollywood) is playing the smooth corporate villain, and Will Forte as the unlucky every-man lawyer, is a supremely fun comedic dichotomy, which should play really, really well in this particular type of narrative.
On the Looney Tunes side of things, Eric Bauza would now be voicing most of the Looney Tunes characters (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and more). Aside from being the primary voice actor behind the most popular Looney Tunes characters, Bauza has also been extremely vocal about his support of seeing Coyote vs. Acme released.
Dave Green, the film’s director, has confirmed that many of the historic Looney Tunes characters, including Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn and Roadrunner, will feature in this film, with some in large supporting parts, and others just making cameo appearances.
The story of Coyote vs. Acme
The film is based on a 1990 humour piece from The New Yorker by Ian Frazier, which imagined Wile E. Coyote taking Acme to court over all the defective products he had been sold over the years. That idea is a perfect fit for a feature film, and the people who saw early cuts of the movie, including Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Daniel Scheinert, reportedly came away very positive about it. This made the whole shelving situation even more frustrating for everyone involved.
The completed movie was created, but Warner Bros chose to scrap it for a tax write-off rather than make it available for viewing in November 2023; they didn’t notify the crew of this decision until the film was already complete. The public immediately began to make a lot of noise on the internet regarding this issue, using hashtags such as #ReleaseCoyoteVsAcme that remained in circulation for months after they were introduced.
Many voices were heard in the industry. Eric Bauza also stated as such in his speech at the 51st Annie Awards, and he critiqued Warner Bros utilizing the voice of Daffy Duck and said:
“I hate to be political, but release Coyote Vs. Acme!”
And now, it is finally happening. The trailer will be out next week, and there is an official release date. After everything this film has gone through, it already feels like its audience base is huge, before seeing even a single frame of what they plan to show to the public. Coyote Vs. Acme debuts in cinemas on August 28, 2026.
Edited by Amey Mirashi