The best sports movies are about underdogs. Cool Runnings. Friday Night Lights. Rocky. But they don’t come much bigger than Next Goal Wins, Taika Waititi’s new comedy that charts the real-life story about one of the worst soccer teams in history.
Fresh off a world-record 31-0 loss, American Samoa enlist the help of Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) to turn around their fortunes.
"It’s known as the beautiful game," Rongen begins in the trailer, before being shipped out to the South Pacific. "But, let’s face it, it’s a complicated game."
Those words are particularly prescient, as Rongen meets his team of no-hopers ("you have no talent, and no understanding of the game," he quips in one scene), overcomes anger issues, and slowly bonds with the American Samoa squad. You can watch the full trailer above.
Waititi, meanwhile, is still attached to a galaxy far, far away. While his name may have been absent from the wave of movie reveals at Star Wars Celebration 2023, his project is currently still in the works.
"Taika is still working away," Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said at the Star Wars event (H/T Variety). "He’s writing the script himself. He doesn’t really want to bring others into that process and I don’t blame him. He has a very, very unique voice. So we want to protect that and that’s what he’s doing. But we’re going to make that one day."
Next Goal Wins, starring Michael Fassbender, Elizabeth Moss, Will Arnett, Oscar Kightley, and Uli Latukefu, is set for release in the US on November 17. For more, here are all the upcoming movies coming your way for the rest of 2023.
