Paramount Pictures has just released the official trailer for By Any Means, the historical crime drama starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. If it wasn’t pointed out that Wahlberg was one of the stars, fans might not have even recognized the Hollywood actor, as this marks his most transformative role yet.
In By Any Means, Wahlberg plays Gregory Scarpa, a notorious real-life hitman who was known for working for the Colombo crime family in New York City as well as being an FBI informant. Abdul-Mateen co-stars in By Any Means as an FBI agent who teams up with Scarpa to investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in Mississippi in 1966. Wahlberg was physically transformed to look more like Scarpa with his role in the movie, as can be seen in the new trailer. Check out the video below.
By Any Means Goes Back to the Past
The plot description for By Any Means reads, “Set against the backdrop of 1966 Mississippi and loosely based on true events, the manhunt thriller follows a volatile partnership between a hardened mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent as they are forced into an uneasy alliance to track down those responsible for the killing of civil rights leaders — uncovering a conspiracy that tests the limits of justice, loyalty and survival.”
Sascha Penn (Power Book III: Raising Kanan) wrote the feature film, which was directed by Elegance Bratton (The Inspection). Along with Wahlberg and Abdul-Mateen, By Any Means also stars Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Nicole Beharie (Miss Juneteenth), Josh Lucas (Session 9), David Strathairn (Nightmare Alley), Ethan Embry (Scream 7), LisaGay Hamilton (Men of a Certain Age), and LaChanze (Highest 2 Lowest).
Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson (Municipal) served as a producer alongside Alex Lebovici (Hammerstone Studios), Chester Algernal Gordon and Bratton (Freedom Principle), and Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (Thunder Road).
The Movie Is Inspired by True Events
“This is a story about unlikely alliances forged under impossible circumstances — where justice is not clean, and the truth comes at a cost,” Bratton teased about By Any Means in a statement. “I wanted to explore what it means to confront violence not just as an act, but as a system — and what it demands of those caught inside it.”
The film marks Wahlberg’s return to the big screen after his past few roles went straight to streaming. He starred in Prime Video’s Play Dirty and Balls Up, as well as Apple TV’s The Family Plan 2. His last theatrical appearance was in the action thriller Flight Risk, which was released in Jan. 2025. As for Abdul-Mateen, the Candyman actor recently starred in the MCU series Wonder Man on Disney+ and the Netflix TV series adaptation of Man on Fire; his last theatrical film was 2023’s Aquaman and the Last Kingdom.
By Any Means will be released in movie theaters on Sept. 4, 2026.
- Release Date
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September 4, 2026
- Director
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Elegance Bratton
- Writers
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Elegance Bratton, Sascha Penn, Theodore Witcher
- Producers
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Basil Iwanyk, Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Jonathan Oakes, Adam Kolbrenner, Erica Lee, Warren T. Goz, Michael J. Rothstein, Alex Lebovici, Logan Coles, Chester Algernal, Waylen Lin