From the mind and imagination of John Krasinski comes the bright, beautiful world of IF. On Thursday, Paramount Pictures unveiled the trailer and release date for Krasinski's latest project, giving fans their first look at the writer and director's upcoming feature.
Starring Ryan Reynolds and The Walking Dead's Cailey Fleming, IF follows Bea, a young girl who, after going through a tough time, discovers that she can see imaginary friends who have been left behind after their real-life friends grew up. Reynolds' character, known as the Man Upstairs, is the only other person who can see all the IFs. He and Bea team up and embark on a magical adventure to reconnect the forgotten IFs with new kids -- if that's even possible.
IF also stars Fiona Shaw and the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Alan Kim, Liza Colón-Zayas and many more as the wonderfully unique characters that reflect the incredible power of a child's imagination.
One voice in particular will get The Office fans excited since the project reunites Krasinski with his The Office co-star, Steve Carell. The star voices one of the biggest IFs -- literally and figuratively -- named Blue, although the trailer reveals that he's anything but.
Last June, Carell told ET he couldn't wait to get started on the project.
"I’m anticipating just joy and fun. I mean, he's the best, and he's a great director," he gushed of Krasinski, adding that he's going to try to make things a little tough for his old pal.
"I’ll put him through his paces, you know? I’ll make him work for it. I might be one of those persnickety actors that doesn’t always agree, or won’t come out of my trailer," Carell quipped. "You think you hired somebody that is a friend, but you got that wrong!"
"I figured I needed to make a movie for my kids. Seeing as though Quiet Place is like PG-40 in our house -- they won't see Quiet Place till they're 40 -- I figured I should make one for them," Krasinski recently told Entertainment Weekly.
The A Quiet Place star and director, who shares daughters Hazel, 9, and Violet, 7, with wife Emily Blunt, said the idea for the film started with him being a spectator to the wonderful cosmos of their childhood imagination.
"I was so enamored by the world that my kids were going to by themselves. They were off on their own and clearly deep in imagination, whether it was a game, whether it was painting, whether it was doing art, all this stuff. They went into this locked-in place that I wish I could have visited," he explained.
He recalled taking the idea to his producing partner, Allyson Seeger, saying, "I just told her, 'I have this weird idea that we should do something where imaginary friends are not just adorable creatures. They're these time capsules for everyone's hopes, dreams, ambitions, and this place that we can always go back to that we all think that as adults we leave behind, but we didn't. They're right there. We just have to turn around and look at them again,'" he said.
Watch the trailer for IF below.
Paramount Pictures also released a featurette, giving fans more insight into IF's creation and premise.
"This is a movie that John and I have been talking about for years now. Something that feels a bit like a live action Pixar film," Reynolds, who also serves as producer of the film alongside Krasinski, reveals in the video. "The man upstairs is a de facto accomplice for Bea, and they strike up a pretty unexpected friendship."
Shaw, who plays Bea's grandmother, says, "In the middle of it is an active imagination. And John Krasinski, who not only wrote the film, directs the film, but he also absolutely enacts these creatures for us all the time."
The cast shares their excitement as Krasinski concludes the featurette with a heartfelt declaration of his motivation for the film's creation. "Imaginary friends are not just these adorable creatures. They are actually time capsules for our hopes, dreams, ambitions," he shares. "I wanted people to leave this movie believing in something bigger and believing in something beautiful will actually get you through another day, because it's very real and it's very possible."
Watch the World of Imaginary Friends featurette video below.
IF hits theaters on May 17, 2024.
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