Ryan Reynolds' video game action-comedy, Free Guy, announces its release date is moving from July to December 2020, while also releasing its very first clip. The news of the film's delay comes as no surprise seeing as practically every upcoming movie is pushing back its release. These decisions are due to movie theaters all over the world being ordered to close their doors in an effort reduce large gatherings and slow the spread of COVID-19 infections.

Release date delays are becoming the norm as of late, with every studio from Disney to Warner Bros., Universal, and Sony all pushing back the release of upcoming movies. This restructuring has led to movies that were going to release very soon now being delayed for an entire year (see Fast and Furious 9), while others are hoping they can be in theaters in just a couple months time (Disney's live-action Mulan, for example). It isn't yet known when movie theaters will be allowed to re-open, but the delaying of so many big movie releases is already having an impact on 2020's box office and may see some theaters never recover financially.

Following the announcement that Free Guy is moving to a December 11, 2020 release date, Ryan Reynolds shared the first clip from the movie. In Free Guy, Reynolds plays an NPC (non-player character) living in an open-world video game who soon comes to realize his life is all part of a game. Armed with this newfound knowledge, Guy (Reynolds), begins to act like the hero as he tries to save the video game, Free City, from being shut down by its developers. In this first clip (which still bears the evidence of Free Guy's former life as Fox movie), Guy watches the morning news as the anchor goes through all the potential dangers awaiting Free City's residents, highlighting everything from stray gunfire to streets awash in the blood of the innocents.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1246145920774950912

Along with Reynolds, Free Guy stars Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Lil Rel Howery (Bird Box), Utkarsh Ambudkar (Brittany Runs a Marathon) and Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit). The film is directed by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) from a script by Matt Lieberman (Scoob!). Free Guy isn't an adaptation of any specific video game, but it does pull influence from popular open-world games like Grand Theft Auto.

What effect, if any, the new release date will have remains to seen, but Free Guy does look more at home among the summer blockbusters than your typical December movie fare. Still, Reynolds can be a big enough draw no matter what time of year, and after the year so many are having, a good laugh is always welcome.