Since his early graduation from Greendale Community College, Donald Glover has defied expectations. Under the alias Childish Gambino, he’s become a chart-topping, Grammy-winning rapper and, on television, an Emmy-winning writer and actor, transforming himself into an awards night favorite with innovative projects like Atlanta and the Prime Video mini-series Swarm. But while Mr. & Mrs. Smith became a surprise breakout on streaming, Glover is finally taking his talents where they belong: The big screen. (And, no, this isn’t about the Community movie).
For his directorial debut, Bando Stone & The New World, Glover returns to the absurd and stylish comedy he’s known for. As Bando Stone, a worthless singer who unfortunately lived through the end of the world and is now likely the last man on Earth, he must make his way across a post-apocalyptic hellscape beset by threats from the animators over at Tron: Ares and some pretty giant reptiles. There’s a Quiet Place meets Jurassic Park air to the trailer, which sees our hero, Bando, attempting to provide some value to his rescuers, a woman played by Jessica Allain and her son, who has far more survival skills than the acclaimed singer of “Party Monkey.”
Always one to make things more complicated for himself, in addition to starring as the titular character, Glover wrote, directed, and scored the movie. Bando Stone is a true Donald Glover X Childish Gambino collaboration, with The New World soundtrack doubling as the new Gambino album. The first single off the album, “LITHONIA,” provides the soundtrack to the worst day of Bando’s life, as depicted in the trailer, and will be released tomorrow for all our July 4th needs. He’ll also be touring on the record starting August 11.
The trailer—one of the few to carry an RCA production card—didn’t include a release date, so we can only assume that Bando Stone will hit theaters sometime before or after the Community movie.
Correction: An earlier version of this article included several misspellings of the film’s title, Bando Stone. The article has been updated throughout. We regret the error.