Mark Wahlberg Transforms in By Any Means Movie Trailer as Greg Scarpa
The by any means movie trailer puts Mark Wahlberg in heavy prosthetics as mafia hitman Greg Scarpa, while Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays FBI agent Strider. Elegance Bratton’s film is built around that pairing, and the trailer makes its 1960s Mississippi setting part of the pitch from the first cut.
“Based on a true story, a young Black FBI agent (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is sent into 1960s Mississippi to investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders. Forced to work alongside notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg), he finds himself pulled into a deadly hunt where justice and vengeance begin to blur.” That setup gives the trailer a built-in conflict that goes beyond a simple crime-thriller frame.
Wahlberg as Greg Scarpa
Wahlberg’s turn as Greg Scarpa is the trailer’s sharpest commercial hook. The actor appears unrecognizable, and the heavy prosthetics do the job the synopsis can only promise: they make the role read as a transformation, not a familiar star vehicle. For a film opening in theaters on September 4, 2026, that kind of visual shift is the clearest piece of marketable footage in the campaign so far.
The trailer also positions Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the counterweight, playing FBI agent Strider. That pairing matters because the film is not selling a single lead performance; it is selling a friction point between an undercover federal agent and a notorious hitman, with the story set against killings targeting civil rights leaders in 1960s Mississippi.
April rights deal
Paramount acquired the distribution rights in April, putting the project into a studio-backed release lane well before the trailer arrived. Sascha Penn wrote the script, and the cast list extends beyond the two leads to Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, Ethan Embry, David Strathairn, and Giancarlo Esposito.
That list signals a film built for ensemble pressure rather than a one-note showcase, even if the trailer keeps the focus on Wahlberg and Abdul-Mateen II. Elegance Bratton’s direction and the action-thriller label suggest the studio is framing By Any Means as a prestige-leaning genre release, with the true-story claim doing part of the audience appeal.
September 4, 2026
By Any Means is set to hit theaters on September 4, 2026, so this trailer is the first clear look at how the movie wants to sell itself to audiences: as a period crime drama with a star turn from Wahlberg, a grounded counterpoint from Abdul-Mateen II, and a story that pushes justice and vengeance into the same frame. For readers tracking the film business side, the trailer has now turned a rights acquisition from April into a concrete release campaign.
