Although he’s been tied up with Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder lately, director Taika Waititi already has another movie in the can in the football comedy-drama Next Goal Wins, and Deadline is reporting that the filmmaker has completed a round of reshoots on the Searchlight Pictures film which has seen Armie Hammer replaced in the cast by Will Arnett.
According to Deadline, Hammer’s removal from the project was down to scheduling issues on said reshoots, and absolutely positively not the cannibal sexting controversy he found himself wrapped up in last year that ultimately led to his exit from Shotgun Wedding, The Offer, Billion Dollar Spy, Gaslit, and everything else he had lined up that wasn’t already shot. Those included Waititi’s Next Goal Wins and Death on the Nile, the latter of which Disney and 20th Century Studios are set to release – with Hammer still on board – this February.
Based on the 2014 documentary of the same name, Next Goal Wins is based on the true story of the American Samoa football (soccer) team and their efforts to quality for the World Cup under Thomas Rongen, a down on his luck maverick coach played by Michael Fassbender.
Arnett has replaced Hammer as an executive at the Football Federation American Samoa, and the role is said to have been expanded during reshoots. Arnett joins a cast that includes Fassbender alongside Elizabeth Moss, Oscar Kightley, David Fane, Beulah Koale, Lehi Falepapalangi, Semu Filipo, Uli Latukefu, Rachel House, Kaimana, Chris Alosio, Rhys Darby and Angus Sampson.
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As yet, there’s no word on a release date for Next Goal Wins, but Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder is slated to open in July of this year.
