Ryan Gosling is on fire. Literally.

Fresh off his trip to Barbie land, the 42-year-old actor is leaping into action with The Fall Guy (in theaters March 1, 2024), David Leitch’s action-comedy about the high-octane world of Hollywood stunts. Universal dropped the first trailer Thursday, teasing a first look at Gosling’s goofy stunt performer (and a few of the jaw-dropping feats he performs along the way).

Gosling stars as Colt, a longtime stuntman who gets a job working for his ex-girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt). Jody is making her directorial debut with an over-the-top sci-fi blockbuster, and Colt is there to help however he can — whether that means getting set ablaze or speeding across the desert in a Mad Max-style car chase. But when the film’s A-list star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing, it’s up to Colt to put his on-screen skills to the test, hunting down the absent actor to help save Jody’s movie.

Leitch is a fitting director for a saga set in the world of stuntmen: Not only has he helmed action-packed films such as John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Bullet Train, but he originally built his career working as a stunt performer, doubling for actors including Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. He and his producing partner Kelly McCormick put their lifelong love of practical stunts to use in The Fall Guy, and EW sat down with the pair for a deep dive into the film’s first trailer.

Here, Leitch and McCormick break down their “love letter” to stunts — from Gosling and Blunt’s explosive chemistry to the real-life explosions on set.

Meet Colt Seavers

Ryan Gosling in ‘The Fall Guy’. UNIVERSAL PICTURES

The Fall Guy is loosely based on the ’80s TV series of the same name, which starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood-stuntman-turned-bounty-hunter. McCormick says that she and Leitch have long loved the show, praising it for its realistic stunts and how it “lit the fuse” for a whole generation of aspiring stuntmen.

“It showed the skills [Majors’ character] had,” McCormick explains. “He was outwitting everybody and was not really believed to be anybody who could get anything done — and then he ended up getting everything done in the nick of time. And they actually achieved really big, practical stunts every week.”

Those practical stunts helped inspire Leitch’s future career: His early résumé is packed with stunt performances in films including Fight Club, Daredevil, and the Matrix franchise. In fact, the trailer features a playful nod to one of Leitch’s past projects; he appeared in 2007’s Bourne Ultimatum, and at one point, Colt says he has to “do some Jason Bourne s—.”

Ryan Gosling in ‘The Fall Guy’. UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Fortunately for Leitch, his leading man is no stranger to action roles, either: Gosling famously played a stunt driver in 2011’s Drive, and he’s taken plenty of punches in films such as Blade Runner 2049 and The Gray Man. But The Fall Guy allows him to blend genres, fusing action with the romance of The Notebook and the comedy of Barbie or The Nice Guys. In fact, that tonal mash-up is part of why Gosling signed on in the first place.

“He was like, ‘Look, I’ve been working on films my entire life,'” Leitch recalls of an early conversation with Gosling before filming started. “‘I’ve gotten really good at the romance film, I’ve gotten to experiment with comedy with The Nice Guys, and I’ve recently done a big action movie called The Gray Man. I feel like I’m ready to make a movie like this, where I get to use all of the tools in my toolbox.'”

The result, Leitch hopes, is a romantic, goofy, and action-packed role that the actor was born to play: “It’s really watching Gosling fire on all cylinders.”

A Blunt connection and an absent A-lister

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in ‘The Fall Guy’. UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Blunt stars alongside Gosling, stepping behind the camera as Colt’s director ex, Jody. A longtime camera operator, Jody is helming her first-ever feature film, a massive blockbuster that’s part sci-fi epic, part Western-style shoot-’em-up. Jody isn’t particularly thrilled to have her ex on set, but that old spark endures, and Leitch says the film hinges on Blunt and Gosling’s connection. “Their chemistry is as good as you see in the trailer,” he teases. “It’s undeniable.”

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in ‘The Fall Guy’. UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Leitch also reteams with Bullet Train’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who appears here as a conceited action star named Tom Ryder. McCormick describes him as the quintessential “toxic celebrity,” a complete 180 from Taylor-Johnson’s real-life personality.

“I think it’s always daunting for an actor to play that sort of narcissistic actor,” Leitch adds with a laugh. “[Aaron] came in cautious, but at one point, he just said, ‘You know what? I’m going for it.’ And he turned on the gas.”

The Fall Guy also assembled an all-star supporting cast, including Black Panther star Winston Duke as the film’s stunt coordinator and Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham as the film’s producer, who recruits Colt to help track down the missing Ryder. Everything Everywhere All at Once star Stephanie Hsu also appears as Ryder’s personal assistant.

Surf’s up

Ryan Gosling in ‘The Fall Guy’. UNIVERSAL PICTURES

You can’t make a stuntman movie without some impressive stunts — and Leitch and McCormick recruited several old friends and collaborators for the task, encouraging them to dream big. The result is a mix of car chases, falls, and explosions, the kind of innovative practical effects that they hope will cause stunt nerds to geek out.

“You’re actually able to allow these stunt performers to do these dream, career-making stunts, which sometimes you don’t get to do anymore when you’re making a film,” McCormick explains. “It takes too long, or there’s too many risks, or you can replace it with CG. But this was such an awesome experience to get to do these things practically and make some stunt people’s dreams come true. There’s a cannon roll. The high fall is insane. There’s a car jump across a giant crevasse that is just a once-in-a-lifetime stunt.”

Leitch shouts out specific stunt performers who doubled for Gosling in certain scenes — like Ben Jenkins, who was set on fire, or Troy Brown, who fell more than 100 feet off a building. Still, Gosling did plenty himself, like the sequence where he surfs behind a runaway garbage truck. To film that, the crew shut down the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, towing Gosling behind a moving vehicle.

“We said, ‘If we’re going to lock down the Harbour Bridge, we better do something amazing,'” Leitch says. “So you’ll see in that sequence: We were actually dragging Ryan Gosling behind a garbage truck doing 40 miles an hour.”

Feeling the love

Ryan Gosling takes the leap in ‘The Fall Guy’. UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Even among all the explosions and car chases, Leitch and McCormick stress that The Fall Guy is a love story, always coming back to that relationship between Colt and Jody. Romance isn’t a genre Leitch has spent much time in, but he jumped at the chance to infuse a little passion into the action genre.

“Kelly and I have gotten to flip a lot of genres on their head — like John Wick with the revenge thriller or Deadpool with the superhero movie,” Leitch explains. “We’ve gotten to do subversive, fun things, but we’ve never gotten to do a sweeping romance. And what better way to do a romance than by jamming it into this bombastic action movie?”

Hopefully, McCormick adds, all that affection will extend off screen, too. “It’s a love letter to stunts,” she explains. “It’s a love letter to cinema. And it’s actually a love letter to crews who make cinema. Coming out of what we’ve experienced this year, this is the time to do it. It’s just this big love fest.”

In fact, Leitch jokes, after directing Gosling and Blunt in The Fall Guy, he’s now so smitten with the romance genre that he’s already considering a love story for his next project. Maybe he could direct Gosling in The Notebook 2, he suggests — as long as he can add a little action-movie twist.

“The Notebook 2, but with a boat chase,” he says with a laugh.