Jesse Eisenberg’s third directorial feature, “The Debut,” got its first trailer from A24 on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. The film sends Julianne Moore into a New Jersey community theater production, under the direction of Paul Giamatti. A24 has not announced a release date. The trailer ends with the words “coming soon,” and Deadline and Gold Derby report the film is targeting a fall 2026 theatrical release.
“The Debut” reunites Eisenberg with Moore, who starred in his 2022 debut feature “When You Finish Saving the World” as the single mom Evelyn Katz. Here Moore plays Mona Friedman, a stay-at-home mom cast in a bit part at a small community theater, with Giamatti as the show’s director Jerry. The supporting cast includes Bernadette Peters, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Colton Ryan, Lilli Cooper, Maulik Pancholy, Bonnie Milligan, Cara Buono, Craig Bierko, and Eldar Isgandarov, plus Eisenberg himself on screen.
The Trailer in Three Lines of Dialogue
Deadline called the film “akin to Whiplash for the community theater world,” per the first-look breakdown of the trailer. Moore’s Mona is a shy housewife who has not sung in front of anyone since her church choir days. She is the only one to audition for the role, per ScreenRant’s read of the trailer. She lands a part in a production run by Giamatti’s Jerry, billed in the trailer as “the biggest name in New Jersey community theater.”
Three lines of dialogue do most of the work. Mona’s first: “I haven’t sung in front of anyone since church choir.” Halle Bailey’s character then warns her, “Jerry is going to test you, and push you, and drag you through the mud,” and Jerry himself tells Mona that “every single thing you are doing is not working.”
ScreenRant’s read is that the line is a tool, not a verdict. Jerry is a frustrated former actor who envies Mona’s ability to star in the show, and pushes her toward something like greatness as the two draw closer and Mona uses the pains of her own life to inform her acting.
Eisenberg appears to play a fellow actor in the community theater troupe. The trailer ends confirming that Eisenberg also wrote the music and lyrics for the in-universe musical. The trailer itself does not feature any singing, and the tagline on the teaser posters is “There’s a method to the madness.”
A Movie That Started in 2019 as an Off-Broadway Play
The film grew out of Eisenberg’s 2019 play “Happy Talk,” which starred Susan Sarandon at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York. Gold Derby reports that “The Debut” “draws from” that play. The same source notes that “despite its community theater setting, The Debut is not technically a musical,” even as Deadline and BroadwayWorld call it a musical comedy. Eisenberg wrote both the screenplay and the original songs for the in-universe show.
On “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” Eisenberg said the songs came from an older project. “I wrote a musical 15 years ago, and it never got produced, and the next movie I’m making takes place in the world of community theater, and I’m able to repurpose music that I wrote,” he said, per BroadwayWorld. The full cast and music-team credits for the film were first reported on BroadwayWorld on June 22, 2026, the day before the trailer. The piece also notes that Eisenberg made a separate joke on the show about the music being his responsibility. The 15 years ago framing is the only date Eisenberg has put on the project.
Since I wrote the music for it, if the music is bad, no one will think it’s my fault: they’ll think that’s the intention.
The line is Jesse Eisenberg on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” as quoted by BroadwayWorld. The joke is also the only public framing Eisenberg has offered of the project he was, in his word to IndieWire, “desperate to produce.”
How the Family Thread Reaches the Comedy
For a director whose last two features sat in a family story, “The Debut” looks like a tonal break. The connective thread runs the other direction, through three of Eisenberg’s earlier projects. Kveller’s Lior Zaltzman walked through the same line. Eisenberg’s 2013 play “The Revisionist” is about a young man who travels to Poland and stays with his elderly second cousin, a Holocaust survivor named Maria. “A Real Pain,” Eisenberg’s 2024 film, is the same story from a different angle, with Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin playing mismatched cousins on a Holocaust tour through Poland.
The “A Real Pain” film was shot in Maria’s old home in Szczecin. Culkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for “A Real Pain,” and Eisenberg earned a Best Original Screenplay nomination and won the BAFTA in the same category. The new film drops the Holocaust frame entirely, with Eisenberg himself on stage this time, in front of the audience. The family-history thread through Eisenberg’s films has run underneath three projects going back to 2013’s The Revisionist.
The Crew Behind the Camera
Eisenberg produces alongside Emma Stone, Dave McCary, and Ali Herting. Topic Studios and Fruit Tree, the same production company behind “A Real Pain,” back the project. A24 distributes, and the film is rated R.
The composer, Emile Mosseri, scored “Minari” and Eisenberg’s “When You Finish Saving the World.” The director of photography is Drew Daniels, whose recent credits include Sean Baker’s “Anora” and “Red Rocket.” The editor is Robert Nassau, who also cut “A Real Pain” and “The Big Sick.” Casting is by Douglas Aibel, whose credits run through “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Marriage Story.”
| Role | Crew member | Recent credit |
|---|---|---|
| Composer | Emile Mosseri | Minari, When You Finish Saving the World |
| Director of photography | Drew Daniels | Anora, Red Rocket |
| Editor | Robert Nassau | A Real Pain, The Big Sick |
| Music supervisor | Steven Gizicki | A Complete Unknown |
| Executive music producer | Bill Sherman | In the Heights |
| Choreographer | Andy Blankenbuehler | Hamilton |
| Casting | Douglas Aibel | The Grand Budapest Hotel, Marriage Story |
| Production design | Anne Ross | Lost in Translation |
The full production lineup was first reported by BroadwayWorld on June 22, 2026, the day before the A24 trailer.
The Cast Around the Two Leads
Moore is a five-time Oscar nominee who has not landed a sixth. She won Best Actress for “Still Alice” in 2015, and earned previous nominations for “Boogie Nights” (1998), “The End of the Affair” (2000), “The Hours” (2003), and “Far from Heaven” (2003). “The Debut” is her first collaboration with Eisenberg since “When You Finish Saving the World” in 2022.
Giamatti is a two-time nominee, for “Cinderella Man” in 2006 and “The Holdovers” in 2024. Eisenberg himself is a two-time nominee, for Best Actor in “The Social Network” in 2011 and Best Original Screenplay for “A Real Pain” at last year’s Academy Awards. The supporting cast around them is unusually theater-heavy for an A24 feature, and BroadwayWorld first reported the lineup on June 22, 2026. Each of the seven named players below carries a credit list that runs through Broadway, off-Broadway, or both.
- Bernadette Peters: Broadway legend
- Halle Bailey: star of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”
- Havana Rose Liu: “Bottoms,” off-Broadway’s “All Nighter”
- Tony Award-winner Bonnie Milligan
- Colton Ryan: “Dear Evan Hansen”
- Lilli Cooper: off-Broadway’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Spring Awakening”
- Maulik Pancholy: “30 Rock,” “Phineas and Ferb”
Pajiba said the fall release date is the right slot for a run at the same season, calling the casting “roles that very much fit” Moore’s and Giamatti’s strengths. The Pajiba piece is also the one place in the first-day coverage to flag A24’s recent deal with Google to train AI on the studio’s catalog, a fact separate from the film. The awards-season analysis of the trailer lays out the math for each of the three leads.
The Pajiba piece is the only first-day review to point at the A24-Google deal. Gold Derby is the one place that lists each of the three leads’ prior nomination years in one place.
The “Coming Soon” Close
The trailer closes on the words “coming soon.” That is also the language on the official A24 page for the film. Deadline and Gold Derby report the film is “targeting a fall 2026 theatrical release,” and JustJared and the A24 Instagram account described it the same way.
No specific date has been announced, and the first official trailer is the only release-tied material out as of June 24, 2026. The next move from the studio will be a date. A24’s catalog has produced two prior Eisenberg films, “When You Finish Saving the World” (2022) and “A Real Pain” (2024). The fall window is the only release language the studio has confirmed beyond the trailer’s “coming soon” close.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is The Debut in theaters?
A24 has not announced a specific date as of June 24, 2026, and the studio’s only confirmed language is the trailer’s closing line: “coming soon.” Deadline and Gold Derby report a fall 2026 target, but no day or month has been set.
Is The Debut actually a musical?
Gold Derby notes the film is “not technically a musical” despite its community theater setting. The story takes place around an in-universe musical production, Eisenberg wrote the original songs, and Emile Mosseri composed the film’s score.
Who wrote the original songs?
Eisenberg wrote the script and every original song in the in-universe musical. On “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” he explained that the songs came from an older project, a musical he wrote “15 years ago” that never got produced.
Who else is in the cast?
Besides Moore and Giamatti, the supporting cast is Bernadette Peters, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Colton Ryan, Lilli Cooper, Maulik Pancholy, Bonnie Milligan, Cara Buono, Craig Bierko, Eldar Isgandarov, and Eisenberg himself, who also appears on screen. BroadwayWorld first reported the full list on June 22, 2026, the day before the A24 trailer dropped.
Where can I watch the trailer?
A24 released the first official trailer on YouTube on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
