Thank God, Dev Patel directed a movie where he gets to be a hot action star

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, the culture needs more Dev Patel. For years, audiences have been fancasting Patel in all sorts of projects (please, Dev Patel rom-com… save us Dev Patel rom-com!), but it turns out Patel has been busy casting himself. He’s starring in his own directorial debut, Monkey Man, which premieres in theaters April 5. On Friday, we got our first look at the Jordan Peele-produced action thriller in the form of a first trailer.

“Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash,” reads a synopsis for movie. “After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.”

The new trailer is stylish and intense, with a heavy helping of Patel’s action-star physique. The actor has thus far avoided the Marvel machine, but here he appears to be crafting his own unique superhero origin story. There’s a Batman bent interwoven with Hindu mythology, as Kid witnesses the burning of his home in childhood and grows up to seek revenge by cultivating his physical prowess. There’s also a comparison to be drawn to John Wick (Beating lots of people up, wielding a gun, petting a dog, etc.). As serious and action-heavy as the trailer is, there’s a sense of humor there, too,

All this to say, it’s a promising look at his first directorial outing, which, by the way, he also co-wrote with Paul Angunawela and John Collee from his own original story. Monkey Man stars Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte, Makarand Deshpande, and of course, Patel himself. Here’s to more Dev Patel in 2024!