[Trailer] Jordan Peele’s Upcoming Horror Transforms Marlon Wayans Into Sinister Cult Leader
A creepy new trailer for the upcoming horror-sports movie HIM has dropped, and it’s already making waves. The film is directed by Justin Tipping and comes from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
It stars Marlon Wayans in a role unlike anything fans have seen from him before, as a chilling, almost-retired football legend who hides something dark behind his fame. Tyriq Withers plays a young football player who gets pulled into his world.
No guts, no glory. #HimMovie is only in theaters September 19. pic.twitter.com/L7WAZ1DHAR
— HIM (@himmovie) August 6, 2025
In HIM, Cameron Cade (Withers) is an ambitious up-and-coming athlete who dreams of making it big. His life changes when he’s invited to train at the private, remote compound of Isaiah White (Wayans), a superstar quarterback nearing the end of his career. At first, it feels like a dream come true. But as training goes on, Cameron starts to discover that Isaiah’s version of greatness comes with a terrifying price.
Previously, director Justin Tipping said the story starts out feeling like a normal sports drama before it turns into something much darker. “My instinct was to set it up in a way that it feels like we’re in Friday Night Lights, or a Gatorade or Nike ad,” he explained. “We’re rooting for the kid who just needs to unlock one thing to take it to the next level. And then we subvert the expectations and let it become Nosferatu or Ex Machina.”
Tipping says that shift from sports to horror gave him a lot of freedom. “Once I started leaning into some of my favourite horror… the creative floodgates just opened,” he said. He also compared the later parts of the movie to psychological horror classics like Jacob’s Ladder.
Jordan Peele said that HIM fit perfectly with Monkeypaw’s style. “At Monkeypaw, we love ideas that shouldn’t be made and that we’re not supposed to touch,” Peele said. “And the combination of sports and horror was something I had never quite seen. It was just clear that we had a genre mash-up that was right up my alley.”
The idea for HIM first came from a script called Goat, written by Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie. It caught attention in Hollywood when it landed on the 2022 Black List of the best unproduced scripts.
Universal Pictures picked it up, and Tipping signed on in early 2024. The cast came together quickly, with Wayans and Withers leading, and Julia Fox joining as Isaiah’s wife. Tim Heidecker, Jim Jefferies, Naomi Grossman, and several others also appear.
The newly released trailer already gives off an unsettling vibe, mixing the glossy, high-energy look of a sports ad with moments that feel deeply disturbing. It hints at the strange and sinister mentorship between Isaiah and Cameron, one that may be about more than just football.
HIM hits theaters in the United States on September 19, through Universal Pictures.
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