Overview
- Paramount released the final trailer on Wednesday, Aug. 12, and confirmed that By Any Means will open in U.S. theaters on September 4, 2026.
- The studio’s official logline frames the film as 'inspired by a true story' about a young Black FBI agent sent to 1960s Mississippi to investigate murders of civil-rights leaders and forced to work with mob hitman Greg Scarpa.
- Yahya Abdul-Mateen II leads the film opposite Mark Wahlberg, supported by Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, Ethan Embry, David Strathairn and Giancarlo Esposito.
- Elegance Bratton directs from credits that include Bratton, Sascha Penn and Theodore Witcher, and early test screenings have been reported to provoke intense audience reactions, which Wahlberg described as 'crazy.'
- Coverage notes that Greg Scarpa was a real Colombo family hitman and that marketing’s dramatic framing and choices such as Wahlberg’s prosthetic nose raise questions about factual fidelity and how the film will handle ethical portrayals of this history.