‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Cast Just Thanked the Fans Who Refused to Let the Movie Die

Few films in recent memory have had a rockier road to the big screen than this one, bouncing between cancellation, public outcry, and years of uncertainty before finally landing a release date. For a movie built around a character famous for never giving up despite constant setbacks, the parallel to its own journey practically wrote itself.

That journey finally reached its conclusion this week, and the film’s stars made sure to acknowledge one of the most memorable moments from the campaign that helped bring it back from the brink.

The ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ cast has a message for the fan who refused to let the movie die. At the film’s premiere, John Cena, Lana Condor, Will Forte, and others thanked the protester who famously dressed as Wile E. Coyote and campaigned for the shelved film to finally be released, with Condor telling TheWrap simply, “Thank you so much!” when asked what she wanted to say to the fan directly.

According to Gizmodo, ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ started out as a Warner Bros.-produced film that was shelved back in 2023 for tax purposes, a decision that sparked immediate backlash from fans and even some of the people who had worked on the already-finished movie. That outcry eventually led Ketchup Entertainment, the distributor behind ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie,’ to step in and give the film the theatrical release fans had been demanding for years.

The film’s promotional campaign leaned directly into that turbulent backstory, with trailers and social media posts featuring meta jabs about being the movie that “Acme” didn’t want people to see. That self-aware marketing approach mirrored the real-world advocacy from fans, some of whom staged public protests, including demonstrations outside Warner Bros.’ own studio gates, to keep pressure on the studio during the years the film sat unreleased.

Directed by Dave Green from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Samy Burch, the courtroom comedy follows billboard accident lawyer Kevin Avery, played by Forte, as he represents Wile E. Coyote in a lawsuit against the Acme Corporation over decades of faulty products. Condor plays Avery’s optimistic niece and legal protégé Paige, while Cena takes on the role of Buddy Crane, the sharp opposing counsel representing Acme.

According to Deadline’s review of the finished film, the courtroom drama also weaves in a host of classic Looney Tunes characters, including Foghorn Leghorn as a key witness, along with appearances from Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Tweety, and Bugs Bunny, who reportedly serves as something of an informant figure for Kevin and Wile E. throughout the story. The film even opens with a sly nod to its own history, displaying a card reading “A fully owned subsidiary of the Acme Corporation” immediately after the Warner Bros. logo.

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ officially opened in theaters on August 28, giving longtime supporters of the campaign the chance to finally see the finished product they’d spent years fighting for. Given how directly the cast chose to acknowledge that grassroots effort at the premiere, it’s clear the film’s unlikely path to release has become just as much a part of its story as the courtroom antics themselves.

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