From GTA to Super Mario, these parodies are brilliant.
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios/Future owns)
Like pretty much every film due for release in 2020, Free Guy has had a bit of a rough ride. The film, set inside a video game, has been pushed back several times, but was finally released this week. And to mark the occasion, a bunch of new posters have been revealed – much to the delight of gamers.
From GTA to Super Mario 64, the posters riff on various famous video game covers, placing Ryan Reynolds and the rest of the film's cast in all manner of famous pixellated and illustrated scenes. And like all the best print ads, they're guaranteed to make you double-take.
Check out these epic #FreeGuy posters inspired by iconic video game covers. 🎮💥Get tickets now to see #FreeGuy in theaters this Friday! https://t.co/1988qhS0nJ 1/2 pic.twitter.com/PDX2gfRUuNAugust 9, 2021
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The eight posters parody recent hits such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Among Us, as well as retro classics including Doom and Mega Man. And the internet is lapping up the unexpected marketing move.
"As much as I'm willing to bet this movie is gonna suck hard, the marketing is genius," one Redditor comments, while one Twitter user adds, "10/10 for the premise, execution, and the humour of these." And it seems one of the most popular designs is the play on the already awful cover for 1987's Mega Man. "Mega Man one cracks me up," says one Redditor. "It's the face. That constipated grunt face."
The original Mega Man cover (left) vs one of the new Free Guy posters (right) (Image credit: Nintendo/20th Century Studios/Future owns)
According to Wikipedia, Free Guy stars Reynolds as a non-player character (NPC) living in an open-world video game called Free City. It's one of the only major films of 2021 not to be released to a streaming service such as Disney+ at the same time as cinemas. (Here's how to get 15% off Disney+).
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(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
Some of the new video game-themed Free Guy posters
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
Like this ballsy KFC/Ikea billboard and that terrifying Black Mirror poster, these are some of the smartest posters we've seen for a while. Still, not every design has to be super-clever – sometimes simply beautiful will do, as is the case with the new Dune poster. If you're inspired to create a poster of your own, check out today's best Adobe Creative Cloud deals below.
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles.
