Taika Waititi wants to leave behind last summer’s criticism of Thor: Love and Thunder with his football-themed film Next goal wins and Searchlight Pictures has released the first trailer for the film. Based on the documentary of the same name by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, Michael Fassbender stars as Thomas Rongen, a soccer coach with rather unorthodox ways of training teams, who tries to turn the American Samoa national team into champions after turning 31. -0 defeat in 2001. Watch the trailer below.
Fassbender also stars Elisabeth Moss, Will Arnett, Uli Latukefu, Rhys Darby, Oscar Kightley, Rachel House, Angus Sampson, Russell Satelle, Karim Benz and Chris Aloso, while Kaimana, a fa’afafine non-binary actor takes on the role of Jaiyah Saelua, the first non-binary player to participate in a World Cup qualifier. Waititi discussed why it was important to cast a non-binary actor in the role Variety:
“It was vital. We couldn’t have approached it any other way.”
The production of Next goal wins not been an easy road. The movie originally started filming in 2019 and was completed in January 2020, just before the Covid pandemic. While that delayed the film’s release, something that similarly affected a number of films, the abuse allegations against Armie Hammer over the course of the following year saw his role taken over by Will Arnett, who reprized all of Hammers. scenes.
Next Goal Wins focuses on a true underdog story
Next goal wins could have easily told the American Samoan team’s well-documented humiliating defeat to Australia, but that story wasn’t really the interesting thing about the team, and Waititi clearly acknowledged that in deciding how to tell the story.
For any football team, being crushed 31-0 would be enough to demoralize a group of players and simply give up and never kick a ball again. For the American Samoa team, that defeat was actually where the story began. The film will show their determination to drag themselves up from the worst team in the world – literally 203rd out of 203 teams – and win against real-life competition, something they finally achieved ten years later in a match against Tonga in 2011.
Next goal wins may not have the makings of a massive blockbuster, but it can certainly make a mark on some of the most memorable sports movies out there. Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss are more than capable of bringing their A-game to their performance, and when he’s in shape, Waititi can get the best out of his cast. Hopefully Waititi will be able to strike a balance Next goal wins which seemed to be missing from last year’s Thor: Love & Thunderand will put himself on a good footing to take on his anticipated foray into the world of Star Wars in the near future.