SDCC COVERAGE SPONSORED BY MAD CAVE
By Ani Bundel
It was already packed at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Hall H when the Coyote vs ACME panel opened at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 with the first public footage ever seen of the infamous movie.
A film that accidentally became the poster child for David Zaslav’s mishandling of the film side of Warner Bros. Discovery, Coyote vs. ACME was initially greenlit pre-pandemic, in 2019, before the once and future HBO Max even existed. By the time it was ready for release in 2024, the film division made the decision to shelve it for tax write-off reasons, as it was seen as a probable flop.
Director Dave Green and star Will Forte spent much of Saturday’s panel thanking the audience for protesting the film’s removal from the Warner Bros. slate, turning the movie into a cultural curiosity that an independent venture could pick up for release and at least guarantee viewers who would come see it out of pure curiosity. I mean, what Looney Tunes movie could be so bad that Warner Bros. didn’t know how to make money off of it?
For one thing, as Green revealed, Coyote vs. ACME was expensive to make, because it was done old school. Not a single bit of A.I. was used to make the film, putting the far closer to Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? in terms of cost. The film is also political, even without the meta overtones of a marketing campaign designed to equate the evil overlords of ACME with those from the production company that tried to shelve it.
Voice actor Eric Bauza, the current custodian of the Mel Blanc voice oeuvre, commented that even before the public even knew about the film, they were experimenting with the “adulting” side of the Looney Tunes world, harkening back to the shorts of the 1940s.
“It’s a Looney Tunes legal drama,” Bauza explained. Like Law & Order, but with animated characters having animated problems.
That tone was obvious from the two exclusive clips played during the panel, including one of Wiley looking back over his experiences as it dawns on him to sue, a dialogue-less barrage of slapstick set to Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.” The second, a full six-minute segment of the film as the trial begins, also had a 1940s feel with mysterious phone calls from curtain. Public figures who can’t be associated with the case, but also wish to bring down ACME.
But the panel’s real fun was in the ACME = Warner Bros marketing. Actor P.J. Byrne arrived in character as ACME attorney Bill Pellicano, who is the assistant to John Cena’s leading superstar lawyer, Buddy Crane. Byrne ran around trying to serve cease and desist orders, had a Zoom call with the head of ACME, and finally just took over the panel and hustled the cast and host Paul Sheer off the stage to shut down the panel and prevent the trailer release.
The final image was of Will Forte screaming “PLAY THE TRAILER!” as he was chased off the stage by Byrne, complete with reaching arms and dropped mics.
Coyote vs. ACME will debut in theaters on Friday, August 28, 2026.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from SDCC ’25.
SDCC COVERAGE SPONSORED BY MAD CAVE
English (US) · 