So imagine the nation’s collective surprise when a TV spot that teased previously unseen footage—craftily placed during Sunday’s AFC championship game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos, a game the majority of households are tuned into while half of the country is shut-in from a snowstorm—featured none other than Houston rap A-lister Travis Scott in a speaking role. Which, what?
It’s hard to tell if this is just a glorified cameo or something more significant; Scott appears to be in a scene between Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland, parts of which appear in the trailer that’s already been out. If you asked me to guess potential surprise performers in this film, I would’ve named at least 100 people before I threw out the guy who made “Mamacita.”
That’s not to hold anything against Scott, or his acting ambitions. He’s been vocal about his love of film for years; theatrical experiences have been a big part of his album rollouts, and he even had a production deal with A24 that may or may not still be in play. (Most impressively, to me at least, during a recent house tour video with Rolling Stone, when asked which movie he’d play in the mansion’s home theater his immediate pick was Tarantino’s underrated Death Proof.) He even has a pre-existing relationship with Nolan, having provided the end credits song for Tenet, and using his IMAX-camera filmed music video for “Franchise” as a hook to lure young audiences in during post-pandemic theater wariness.