Let me paint you a picture. It's August 2022. David Michôd—guy behind The King and Animal Kingdom—wraps shooting on a bizarre little stoner noir called Wizards! (yes, with an exclamation mark, which already feels like a red flag). Pete Davidson's in it. Franz Rogowski too. Joel Edgerton gets a story credit. And Sean Harris, because of course Sean Harris is sniffing around in a story about duffel bags full of mystery cash and spiraling paranoia.
Flash forward to… now. July 2025. No movie. No trailer. No release date. Nothing.
Just static.
And a growing legend about one of the most viscerally off-putting test screenings A24's ever had the joy of sitting through.
“Still in the Editing Room”
That's what a source close to the production said recently. Still. In. The. Editing. Room.
That means three years of tinkering. Three years of Michôd apparently hacking away at footage that supposedly includes not one, but two extended shit-eating scenes. Literal shit. Davidson's is liquid. Rogowski's is… chunkier. I hate that I just typed that.
Look, I'm all for artistic risk. Push the envelope, spit in the face of good taste, whatever. But it's starting to feel like Wizards! isn't pushing boundaries—it's just stuck behind them, waving a turd.
And here's the kicker: Michôd already made another movie while this one's been in post-production purgatory. An untitled Christy Martin boxing biopic starring Sydney Sweeney. It's done. It might hit festivals this fall. That means we might see his next film before we even get a sniff of Wizards!.
Pun intended. Unfortunately.
What Even Is This Movie?
Short version? It's about two beach-bar stoner bros (Davidson and Rogowski) who stumble on a bag of stolen money at a tropical resort and—shocker—try to keep it. Then things unravel. Sean Harris shows up. People vanish. Violence creeps in. Bodily fluids are consumed. At some point, you start to wonder if everyone involved might've gotten concussed mid-shoot.
Some folks at a test screening said it was aiming for The Beach Bum or Smiley Face energy, but… failed. Not enough weed to mellow out the nihilism. Not enough plot to carry the absurdity. Just vibes, chaos, and excrement.
Here's a lovely little pull-quote from one viewer:
“Absolutely the most pointless film of the year. Two loser friends… a guest disappears… solid turd… liquid shit… there isn't enough weed to save it.”
You know a movie's in trouble when people start doing scatological scene breakdowns before it's even premiered.
This Isn't Animal Kingdom
Michôd's early work had bite. Animal Kingdom was cold-blooded and tight as a snare drum. The Rover was dusty, weird, but interesting. The King was moody, miscast, but ambitious. And now? This feels like a career detour into madness—less “creative pivot,” more “narrative concussion.”
Franz Rogowski told IndieWire back in December 2023 that they were still re-editing the film. Trying to “find the right tone.” That was 19 months ago. Which means either they found the tone and hated it… or the tone ran off into the jungle and no one's seen it since.
The Vibe Is Cursed
Let's review:
- Shot: August 2022
- Still editing: July 2025
- No release date
- Not at Sundance, not at SXSW, not headed to TIFF
- Test screenings that make Mother! look like Paddington 2
- Director's next film is leapfrogging it entirely
At this point, the only thing more mystifying than the movie itself is the fact that A24 hasn't shelved it entirely. Or maybe they have, and we're just watching the world's slowest burial.
So When Will We See Wizards!?
2026? Maybe. Maybe never. Maybe Michôd finally finds his “right version,” and we all get to sit in a dark theater next year watching Franz Rogowski chew on set dressing while Pete Davidson tries to act through a brown-out.
Or maybe it becomes a weird Hollywood cautionary tale—Wizards! as the new The Day the Clown Cried. A film that exists, technically, but nobody really wants to deal with.
And here's the part that bothers me: I want to be curious. I do. But every update makes me more convinced that this movie isn't waiting for the world to be ready—it's hiding from it.
At some point, you gotta stop editing and just own the mess.
