A24’s How to Make a Killing Trailer: Glen Powell Breaks Bad In Dark Comedy

You can only play the “charismatic golden boy” for so long before the audience starts checking their watches. Glen Powell, currently Hollywood’s favorite handsome hammer looking for a nail, seems to know the clock is ticking. With the release of the first How to Make a Killing trailer, we’re finally seeing the pivot. A24 has handed him a knife, a trust fund dispute, and a license to get weird.

Formerly titled Huntington—a title presumably too subtle for a marketing team terrified of general audiences—the film arrives as the sophomore effort from John Patton Ford. If you saw his debut, Emily the Criminal, you know Ford understands the desperate, sweaty panic of being broke in America. This looks… different. Cleaner. Glossier. The grit of Los Angeles debt has been swapped for the velvet-roped cruelty of old money.

The premise is ripped straight from the 1949 classic Kind Hearts and Coronets. Becket Redfellow (Powell), disowned at birth, decides to expedite his inheritance by removing the seven relatives standing between him and a billion dollars. It’s a tale as old as capitalism. Kill the rich, take their stuff, try not to get caught.

Watch the official trailer below:

The “Eat the Rich” Fatigue

Here’s the thing about class warfare satires lately: they’re becoming the comic book movies of the indie circuit. Saltburn, The Menu, Triangle of Sadness—we get it. Rich people are vacuous and blue-collar interlopers are vengeful. The How to Make a Killing trailer leans hard into this aesthetic. We get the requisite shots of Margaret Qualley looking bored in couture, Ed Harris doing his best “titan of industry” scowl, and lush tracking shots of manicured lawns that scream Succession on a budget.

But there’s a specific visual language here that catches the eye. It’s not the muddy, digital look plaguing most modern comedies. Ford and his DP have gone for a high-contrast, saturated look that mimics the Technicolor thrillers of the 60s. It’s a smart choice. If you’re going to remake a British classic, you dress it up.

However, the casting of Powell is the real marketing play here. This role requires him to weaponize his likability. In the original Kind Hearts, Dennis Price played the killer with a cold, detached elegance. Powell seems to be playing Becket with a frantic, American energy. He’s not just killing for money; he’s killing because he feels entitled to the win. It’s a subtle shift, but an important one. It transforms the character from a charming sociopath into a mirror for modern hustle culture.

From Huntington to a Killing

Let’s talk about that title change. Huntington sounded prestigious. It sounded like an awards contender. How to Make a Killing sounds like a direct-to-video thriller from 1996 starring Christian Slater.

A24 is usually smarter than this. But maybe they aren’t. Maybe looking at the release date—February 20, 2026—explains it. February is a graveyard. It’s where studios dump the movies they don’t know how to sell to the Oscar voters but still want to squeeze cash out of. By changing the title to a pun, they’re signaling that this is a “fun” time, not a “serious” time. They want the Knives Out crowd, not the Zone of Interest crowd.

The trailer edit reinforces this. The needle drops are punchy, the cuts are rhythmic, and the dialogue is snipped into quips. “Heir today, gone tomorrow.” Jesus. Who writes this copy? It’s cheesy, sure. But it works. It tells the mall audience that they don’t need a film degree to enjoy Glen Powell murdering Topher Grace.

Can Ford Do It Again?

John Patton Ford won Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards for Emily the Criminal. That film worked because it felt dangerous. It felt like the walls were closing in. The challenge with How to Make a Killing is maintaining that tension when the characters are surrounded by luxury.

The trailer shows flashes of that anxiety—Powell’s face twitching, the frantic pacing of a murder gone wrong—but it also risks falling into the trap of being too pleased with its own cleverness. We see Zach Woods and Jessica Henwick in the mix, suggesting the ensemble is stacked, but ensemble comedies live or die on chemistry, not just casting announcements.

A24 has been hit-or-miss lately with their broader commercial swings. For every Civil War, there’s a The Iron Claw that gets ignored by the Academy or a Beau Is Afraid that confuses everyone. This film sits in a weird middle ground. It’s a remake of a masterpiece, starring a massive movie star, directed by an indie darling, dumped in February.

It’s a gamble. But looking at Powell’s manic grin in the final shot of the teaser, at least it won’t be boring. Probably.

A24 releases How to Make a Killing in theaters nationwide on Friday, February 20, 2026.

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What the Marketing Strategy Actually Reveals

• The Title Change Was Panic-Based
  Shifting from Huntington to How to Make a Killing screams that focus groups didn’t “get” the original title. They’re pivoting from prestige drama to mass-appeal crime comedy.
• Powell is the Only Selling Point
  Notice how the ensemble—Ed Harris, Margaret Qualley—are barely featured? The entire campaign rests on Powell’s ability to open a movie without a fighter jet.
• February is the New “Smart Blockbuster” Month
  Studios are increasingly using February/March to launch mid-budget adult thrillers (Cocaine Bear, M3GAN) to avoid the summer tentpole crush.
• It’s Not Really a Remake
  While based on Kind Hearts and Coronets, the tone here suggests they’ve stripped out the British restraint in favor of American excess. It’s a spiritual successor, not a beat-for-beat copy.
• A24 Needs a Commercial Hit
  After a year of divisive art films, this trailer is cut specifically to look accessible. Bright colors, clear plot, famous faces. They want popcorn sales, not just Letterboxd reviews.

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