Mattel and Warner Bros. just dropped the news that Jon M. Chu, the brilliant director behind Wicked and Crazy Rich Asians, is set to helm the highly anticipated live-action Hot Wheels movie.
Coming off Wicked’s massive $756 million box office haul and 10 Oscar nods, Chu has shown he can build imaginative worlds packed with heart. Mattel Studios president Robbie Brenner raved about Chu’s ability to craft “rich, vibrant worlds with a unique vibe,” hinting that this film will be more than just toy cars and wild stunts.
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Chu’s backed by a killer production crew. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, already teaming up with Chu on an animated Dr. Seuss project, is producing alongside Chu’s Electric Somewhere and Mattel Studios. Abrams, the mastermind behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, brings serious blockbuster experience, while writers Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier—known for Creed II and They Cloned Tyrone—are penning the script. Heavyweights like Sheila Walcott and Zach Hamby from Warner Bros., along with Arturo Thur de Koós from Mattel, are steering the project.
The plot’s still hush-hush, but Mattel’s calling it a “high-octane action” flick featuring “the world’s hottest and sleekest rides.” The movie’s been in the works since 2019, with earlier scripts from writers like Neil Widener and Gavin James in 2020, then Dalton Leeb and Nicholas Jacobson-Larson in 2023. Chu’s arrival, with Taylor and Rettenmaier, feels like a bold new lap, riding the wave of Mattel’s Barbie, which raked in $1.4 billion and redefined what toy movies can do.
Mattel’s going all-in on movies after Barbie’s success. With a Masters of the Universe film starring Nicholas Galitzine and a Barney movie written by Ayo Edebiri in the works, Hot Wheels is primed to zoom into the action scene. With Chu driving the project, it could give the Fast & Furious series a run for its money, mixing pulse-pounding races with real emotional weight. No release date yet, but with Chu’s Wicked: For Good hitting theaters on November 21, 2025, production’s likely to hit the gas soon after.
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