Will Forte is reflecting on Warner Bros. shelving Coyote vs. Acme after the live-action/animated film was completed.
The Saturday Night Live alum looked back on his feelings about the initial cancellation of the movie’s release and weighed in on the possible benefits of the delay.
“Extreme frustration, fiery frustration, a lot of anger, white-hot anger,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “But then ultimately, that’s mixed with pride in this movie we’ve done.”
He continued, “And also, who knows? Everything happens for a reason, and it is certainly possible that the crazy journey that this movie is taking will help get more eyes on it, because it’s a story people know about a little bit. But I don’t think we needed this crazy journey.”
Coyote vs. Acme was originally set to premiere July 21, 2023, but Warner Bros. moved it to make way for Barbie. However, in November of that same year, the studio shelved the movie and instead took a $30 million tax write-off.
In March 2025, Warner Bros. completed the sale of the Looney Tunes hybrid to Ketchup Entertainment, with Forte recently revealing that they plan to release the film on August 28, 2026.
Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor, and Tone Bell star in the movie, which follows Wile E. Coyote, who, after Acme products fail him one too many times in his dogged pursuit of the Roadrunner, decides to hire a billboard lawyer to sue the Acme Corporation. The case pits Wile E. and his lawyer (Forte) against the latter’s intimidating former boss (Cena), but a growing friendship between man and cartoon stokes their determination to win.