Austin Butler’s Upcoming Summer Blockbuster Had the Wisdom to Dodge an Oscars Race Against ‘Oppenheimer’

Back in September 2023, Focus Features released the first trailer for The Bikeriders. The Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, and Tom Hardy-led motorcycle gang drama seemed well on its way to transforming its photobook source material into a good old-fashioned Oscars contender.

Then the SAG-AFTRA strike dragged on and on, pushing the December 2023 release date to June 21, 2024. It’s a smart move to push this potential awards contender into 2024. After all, who would want to go up against Oppenheimer this awards season?

Jokes aside, the delay could have very well been a major blessing in disguise for The Bikeriders, which seems to have all the makings of a fantastic summer blockbuster locked and loaded in its diesel-scented musk.

The film stars Comer as Kathy, a young woman who falls hard and fast for the impulsive Benny (Butler), who belongs to the fictional Chicago motorcycle club Vandals MC. The Vandals are most aptly characterized as a gang of rough yet honest misfits. When their leader Johnny (Hardy) begins to lead the gang in a more violent direction, Benny’s divided loyalties cause tensions to rise at a pace that not even the greatest biker in the world could keep up with.

It looks to be a great vehicle for Butler in particular, whose character Benny seems to ironically fall somewhere between the cool charm of Elvis Presley and the kneejerk-esque violent edge of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. Toss in an impressive haul of positive reviews (at the time of writing, The Bikeriders has an 86 percent approval rating of Rotten Tomatoes), and suddenly The Bikeriders might just be the 2024 summer blockbuster to beat. Critically speaking, of course: No one stands a chance against Deadpool & Wolverine.

The Bikeriders roars into theaters on June 21, 2024.

(featured image: Focus Features)

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Charlotte Simmons

Charlotte is a freelance writer at The Mary Sue and We Got This Covered. She's been writing professionally since 2018 (a year before she completed her English and Journalism degrees at St. Thomas University), and is likely to exert herself if given the chance to write about film or video games.