It took a lot of work, but Coyote vs. Acme is finally coming to theaters. After being shelved and many speaking out on its behalf, the world will finally get to see Wile E. Coyote take his fight to the Acme Corporation. John Cena is happy to see it finally coming out, as someone who advocated for it, but he still maintains a very professional mindset about the situation that feels informed by his time in WWE.
Ahead of the movie's release on the 2026 schedule, Cena spoke to EW about the situation and whether his perspective on the movie business was altered by everything Coyote vs. Acme went through. Surprisingly, his view of Hollywood is unchanged, and he explained why:
I am hired by an employer to do a task, and it’s my job to prepare as much as I can, be early, be coachable, be passionate, and be reliable. do that and hope for the best. Those expectations are beyond my control, so it doesn’t make me view the business any differently. Keep in mind, it is the movie business.
As a longtime fan of the WWE, it's easy to imagine John Cena saying the exact same thing about working in professional wrestling. He was a master of consistency, which ultimately led to him being the face of the company for decades. Now, he's retired, but it seems as though his "Never Give Up" mindset translates quite well to acting.
Will John Cena become the face of acting? Who knows what the future will bring, though his performance was celebrated when Comic-Con audiences saw him in Coyote vs. Acme. It'd be a shame if people didn't get to see him play Buddy Crane, but as Cena explained, that's just the nature of the beast:
Sometimes, business decisions are things that we don’t see through the same lens. Of course, I want my work seen by an audience. That’s how I can accept both the positive and the negative and get better as a performer. But I don’t own my performance. I’m contracted to do a job, and the person who owns it gets to decide what happens with it.
It's diplomatic responses like that that helped John Cena become the winningest champion the WWE has ever seen. He ended 23 years of professional wrestling in the record books for many reasons. Not just for his title wins, but for his philanthropic work as well. To this day, Cena holds the world record for most wishes granted through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which certainly feels like his biggest accomplishment in a long list of achievements.
As mentioned, Cena plays Buddy Crane in Coyote vs. Acme, the head attorney representing the Acme Corporation. He has a history with Wile E. Coyote's lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte), who used to work at his firm. Forte is well-known for his comedic work on Saturday Night Live, so I'm eager to see how Cena can match his energy. Although, while Forte can be very high energy, we know the WWE superstar has the comedic chops to keep up just fine.
In addition to that, we'll see a ton of Looney Tunes characters in the mix. Voice actor Eric Bauza is lending his voice to a big chunk of them, as the modern flag-bearer for the franchise in more recent projects. It's been a long wait to see this movie, and I'm really hoping that audiences turn out to watch it!
Coyote vs. Acme is in theaters on August 28th. After waiting all this time, I can't wait to see it and see the Looney Tunes back on the big screen.
