Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani try to solve a murder — and might break up — in The Lovebirds first trailer
Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae are in the middle of a really bad date.
The first trailer for their murder mystery-meets-romantic comedy The Lovebirds offers a glimpse into the onscreen couple’s night of terror, which starts with a discussion about the future of their relationship (hint: it’s not good) and quickly devolves after a man steals their car, commits murder with said car, and then leaves them to become implicated in the crime.
The flick, which reunites Nanjiani with his The Big Sick director Michael Showalter, calls on the actors’ well-exercised comedy chops but throws its fair share of fight scenes and weapons-yielding into the mix. As Rae told EW during an interview for the first look of the film, she underwent fight choreography training for her role.
Nanjiani and Rae joined the project during the script stage and then worked together to adapt the story line to fit their own personal demographics. “Initially they were written for white people which, plot-wise, would have been a different story,” explains Rae of their characters Jibran and Leilani. “It’s not a story about race but we wanted to acknowledge our race and the fact that we’re an interracial couple.”
The rom-com-with-a-twist takes place over a (very long) night in New Orleans and follows the potentially-doomed couple as they try to track down the actual murderers in order to clear their name. They visit a diner, ditch their street clothes (evidence!) for highly absurd outfits sourced from a convenience store, attend an immersive play, commit an actual crime (breaking and entering), and find themselves held captive by a terrifying couple played by Anna Camp and Kyle Bornheimer. The only thing they don’t do, at least in the trailer, is solve the murder.
The Lovebirds is in theaters April 3.
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