Apple has unveiled the first trailer for Mayday, a new action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, and it looks like an entertaining mix of explosive set pieces, Cold War tension and classic buddy-comedy chemistry. The film is scheduled to debut globally on Apple TV+ on 4 September 2026.
In the film, Reynolds plays Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly, a talented U.S. Navy pilot sent on a high-stakes covert mission deep inside Russian territory during the Cold War. Things quickly spiral out of control when the operation collapses, leaving him stranded behind enemy lines.
Enter Branagh’s Nikolai Ustinov, a former KGB operative with a surprising fascination for American culture. Rather than becoming enemies, the pair form an uneasy alliance that appears to sit at the heart of the film’s story, delivering plenty of opportunities for both action and comedy.
The project comes from directing and writing duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who are known for blending humour with large-scale adventure storytelling. The trailer showcases aerial combat, dramatic escapes, fish-out-of-water moments and the kind of quick-fire banter Reynolds fans have come to expect.
Joining the cast are Maria Bakalova, Marcin Dorociński and David Morse, adding even more star power to Apple’s latest original film offering.
With its combination of Cold War espionage, action spectacle and an unlikely friendship between two men from opposite sides of the conflict, Mayday could be one of the streaming service’s biggest crowd-pleasers of the year when it lands this September.
