Released by Paramount Pictures this week, the trailer offers our first look at footage from the R-rated action comedy that casts Dwayne Johnson as Mitch Buchannon — the role famously played by David Hasselhoff in the original show. And judging by the trailer, that’s not the only thing the movie will have in common with the series that inspired it.
Along with Johnson as Mitch, the film features a long list of other characters from the original series played by new faces, and follows a group of lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County in California. Other actors playing the series’ established characters are Zac Efron as Matt Brody (originally played by David Charvet), Alexandra Daddario as Summer Quinn (originally played by Nicole Eggert), Kelly Rohrbach as C.J. Parker (originally played by Pamela Anderson), Ilfenesh Hadera as Stephanie Holden (originally played by Alexandra Paul), and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Garner Ellerbee (originally played by Gregory Alan Williams).
The supporting cast also includes Jon Bass (Loving), Priyanka Chopra (Quantico), and Hannibal Buress (Broad City).
Baywatch is directed by Horrible Bosses and Identity Thief filmmaker Seth Gordon, from a script that’s been through several revisions. The most recent draft was penned by Friday the 13th writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.
Despite being canceled after its first season, Baywatch became a massive hit after it went into first-run syndication, and aired for more than a decade. The series spawned two spinoff series, Baywatch Hawaii and Baywatch Nights, and multiple made-for-television movies.
Baywatch is scheduled to hit theaters May 19, 2017.
