Will Smith remains one of the most likeable cusses in all Hollywood if not America, which makes it all the more upsetting that the guy hasn’t registered a real box office W in quite a while. Suicide Squad, Gemini Man, Bad Boys for Life, Focus and Aladdin all clocked in at varying degrees of quality, but none of them really felt like they made the most of Smith’s radioactive star power. But now we’ve got the first trailer for King Richard, in which Smith stars in the real-life story of Venus and Serena Williams’ dad, who drove his daughters to excellence on the unshakeable belief that they could end up changing the world — a belief that turned out to be, well, no spoilers, but let’s just say things worked out.
Based on the trailer, Smith is going full Oscar Mode here, deploying the acting chops we’ve seen in movies like Pursuit of Happyness and Ali, neither of which quite elevated him up to Oscar winning status. Still, Smith clearly has an Oscar-caliber performance in him and maybe King Richard will be the one that gets him there. We’ll see when the movie premieres in November.
