John Cena has traded the wrestling ring for a toy-car franchise, and “Matchbox: The Movie” arrives Friday on Apple TV with the 49-year-old carrying a studio action comedy for the first time since he left WWE.
Cena retired from professional wrestling last year and has leaned hard into film. The movie draws on Mattel’s line of miniature die-cast cars. He plays Sean, an undercover CIA agent who returns to his small hometown after years away and drags his childhood friends into a worldwide chase to save the planet. Jessica Biel, Arturo Castro, Sam Richardson, Teyonah Parris, Danai Gurira, Corey Stoll, Bill Camp and Golshifteh Farahani complete the cast.
Sam Hargrave directs. He made his name as a stunt coordinator and then directed Netflix’s “Extraction,” and Cena says the new film gives him room to tell a story rather than just stage fights. Cena has called the experience one of the most rewarding of his career and praised Hargrave’s insistence on the best from everyone each day.
The shoot tested him physically. Hargrave pushed him to perform his own stunts, including a sequence with Sean dangling from a helicopter. Cena used the film’s Comic-Con panel to admit what that cost him. “I hate heights,” he said. He told Deadline the work also had lighter moments. He popped a wheelie in a modified Volkswagen bus, and “wheelying a van was pretty fun.”
The film leans on nostalgia. Cena has said remembering childhood connections can comfort people in lonely stretches, according to an interview with El Universo. He added that he tries to avoid a message that excludes fans who had hard childhoods.
The shift suits a star who spent two decades building a persona in one arena before moving into another. Cena has said he applied his wrestling habit of staying in character during interviews to his turn as Peacemaker, wearing the costume so audiences would recognize it. That instinct to sell a role carries over to a family-friendly lead part. Reviews have not yet landed, so the film’s reception remains open. Apple is betting Cena’s pull can carry a brand built on toys.
