Tom Holland is going gritty in his latest role as the star of Cherry, his upcoming Apple Original drama from directors Joe and Anthony Russo. After revealing Cherry‘s official film poster last month, Apple has released the brand new trailer, sharing a first look at the highly anticipated project with Entertainment Weekly.
In the opening moments of the trailer, Holland, who stars as the titular Cherry, sets the tone for the genre-bending adaptation of Nico Walker’s semi-autobiographical novel. “I’m 23 years old, and sometimes I wonder if life was wasted on me,” he says, setting a bill down in front of bank teller with the words “I have a gun,” and “this is a robbery” scrawled on both sides.
The trailer travels back in time from that moment, showing us how Cherry’s story begins with his time as a college student, where he falls in love with Emily (Ciara Bravo), then leaves school to enlist in the Army. When Cherry returns from home, he’s suffering from an undiagnosed case of PTSD and turns to drugs to numb the memories and the pain that comes with them. “I take all the beautiful things to heart till I about die from it,” he explains in the new trailer.
To pay back his debt from his opioid addiction, Cherry turns to bank robbery, quickly transforming from the hesitant young man we see in the first seconds of the trailer to a skilled criminal breaking the fourth wall to offer viewers his advice on robbing a bank. “The one thing about robbing banks is you’re mostly robbing women, so the last thing you want to be is rude,” he says in one of the film’s darkly comedic moments.
In an interview with EW released with today’s new trailer, Joe Russo, who worked with Holland in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, explained why he and his brother chose the Spider-Man actor as their Cherry star. “Tom is playing a character who makes some self-destructive choices, but he’s so charismatic and likeable,” he told EW. “It was important for us that the audience go on a journey with him when he makes those choices.
“We needed an actor who could bring [the audience] along emotionally on a journey,” he added. “And there are very few actors who can do that like Tom Holland.”
Along with Holland and Bravo, Cherry also stars Jack Reynor, Michael Rispoli, Jeff Wahlberg, Forrest Goodluck, Michael Gandolfini, Kyle Harvey, Pooch Hall, Thomas Lennon, Kelli Berglund, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Nicole Forester, Jamie Brewer, Fionn O’Shea and Adam Long.
Cherry premieres in theaters Friday, Feb. 26, and will later premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, March 12. Watch the full trailer in the video above.
