Are you ready for the newest vision from Jordan Peele? If you said ‘Nope,’ you’re more prepared than you thought. Nope marks the third film directed by the Key & Peele creator, and like his previous two works – Get Out and Us – the film has a simple title but a grand vision that should leave audiences shaking in their seats when the final scene plays.
Jordan touched on the title’s origin during a Universal Pictures panel in April. “I love a rapt audience saying, “Nope!’ or, ‘Get out the house!’ I love to encourage that interaction because that’s what’s giving the audience a unique experience,” he said, per Entertainment Weekly. “Rollercoasters aren’t fun alone. Being scared isn’t fun alone. You need that energy.”
Like with all of Peele’s projects, Nope is one of the biggest releases of the summer — and not a lot is known about it. Though, perhaps that’s for the best? As the world prepares to see where the Oscar-winning writer and director has created, here’s what we know so far about Nope.
Release Date & Where To Watch
Nope will arrive on July 22, 2022. It’s scheduled to be released in theatres by Universal Pictures. So far, there is no plan for the movie to be simultaneously streamed on a platform with its theatrical release.
Cast and Crew
Cast
Nope reunited Jordan Peele with Daniel Kaluuya, whose breakthrough role was Peele’s Get Out. Kaluuya’s role in the film earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. The film will also feature Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Keith David, and more. Yuen worked with Peele on the 2019 reboot of The Twilight Zone. Keke teamed with Peele in an episode of his sketch comedy show, Key & Peele.
“What is so funny is I realized that when I started doing Nope, I went to Jordan Peele’s messages. For whatever reason why, and I see in the messages that I had messaged him a year ago saying, ‘Hey, it would be a dream to work with you. I would love to get the opportunity to maybe one day. Thank you for everything you’re doing,'” Keke EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife in October 2021. “And then a year or two years later, I’m doing Nope.”
“What I can say is that my character is kind of a combination of many cool character archetypes,” Keke told Entertainment Weekly. “Who you believe she is in the beginning, she continues to grow throughout the film and becomes someone else. I’m excited to just represent a really cool character that is not solely defined by their complexion…I just love how with everything [Peele] does, while there will be Black leads, the gag isn’t always that you’re Black.”
- Daniel Kaluuya as James Haywood
- Keke Palmer as Jill Haywood
- Steven Yeun as Brian
- Michael Wincott as Craig
- Brandon Perea as Kevin
- Barbie Ferreira as Danielle
- Donna Mills as Bonnie Clayton
- Jennifer Lafleur as Phyllis
- Keith David as Pops Haywood
- Andrew Patrick Ralston as Tom
- Jennifer Lafleur as Phyllis
- Rhian Rees
- Ryan W. Garcia
- Gloria Cole
- Terry Notary
- Sophia Coto
- Wrenn Schmidt
Crew
Robert Graf is the executive producer of Nope. Robert is best known for his work producing the Coen Bros. films. He was an associate producer on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Intolerable Cruelty, The Lady Killers. He was the executive producer of the 2010 True Grit remake, A Serious Man, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, Insider Llewyn Davis, and Hail, Ceasar!. Robert also produced The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Robert’s non-Coen Bros. work includes Smokin’ Aces and Friday Night Lights.
Jordan Peele is the film’s director, producer, and writer.
“I’m very proud of it,” Peele said during his presentation at 2022’s Cinemacon, per IndieWire. “We shot ‘Nope’ in 65mm and IMAX. Incredible. The IMAX cameras allowed us to capture some incredible images, unlike anything on film before. We used some new techniques that we’ve never seen before.”
Premise
Jordan Peele has been tight-lipped about the movie, which is his usual M.O. Promising a “new pop nightmare,” Nope is expected to be a reimagining of the summer film. It’s set in a lonely gulch in Inland, California, and residents “bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery,” per a press release. Many have theorized that the film will tackle extra-terrestrials
“This film is definitely a ride. The title speaks to the idea of being in tune with what the audience is thinking and feeling in the theater,” Peele said at the April 2022 panel. . “I know a lot of people who say, when it’s a scary movie, they say, ‘Nope!’ Especially Black audiences, right? We love horror, but there’s a skepticism.”
“Nope is nothing like Get Out or Us,” Keke told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a totally different vibe, it’s about something different — the themes are totally different, and the tone is totally different. This has a lot of ’70s tones, which I think is exciting.”
“The film itself is what Jordan usually does: a commentary on something grander. It uses the horror genre as a way to [examine] what we are all running from, or what we all get so totally obsessed with, how it defines us, how it brings us to the edge,” Keke said in an EW interview.