Ryan Reynolds Plays Matchmaker for Imaginary Friends in Inner-Child Healing ‘IF’ Trailer

In the trailer for John Krasinski‘s upcoming film IF, the portal to the world of imaginary friends is located behind a secret door in New York’s Coney Island — and Ryan Reynolds has the keys. In theaters May 17, the film stars Reynolds alongside Cailey Fleming as their characters embark on a mission to find new homes for the kooky creatures who were once best friends to children who moved on long ago.

An all-star cast of imaginary friends appear in the film, which was written and directed by Krasinski, who also stars in the film with Fiona Shaw. Other credited appearances include Steve Carell who voices Blue (a giant purple monster) as well as Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Emily Blunt, Maya Rudolph, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Alan Kim, and Liza Colón-Zayas.

As the Man Upstairs, Reynold’s character can see all of the imaginary friends he’s been trying to help pair with new children, but so can Bea (Fleming). There’s a banana with no pants who looks like a combination of multiple Amazing World of Gumball characters; a well-meaning marshmallow with a slipping and sliding eye; a wooden drawing mannequin; and a whole whose of other characters who would have felt right at home on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.

“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,” Krasinski recently told Entertainment Weekly, adding: “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.” 

From Rolling Stone US.