It’s always good to see a Coen brother at work, even if the iconic directorial duo isn’t working together at the moment. The last film from the Coen Bros. as a unit remains 2018 Netflix western anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, at which point they’ve diverged to pursue some of their own projects. Joel Coen’s only feature to date has been 2021’s Denzel Washington-starring The Tragedy of Macbeth for A24/Apple TV+, while Ethan Coen has been a bit more active, with 2022’s Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind, last year’s Drive-Away Dolls and now another 2025 release on the horizon: The bound-for-theaters Honey Don’t!, which just debuted its first trailer, which you can view below.
Honey Don’t! stars The Substance breakout star Margaret Qualley, reuniting with Ethan Coen after likewise fronting Drive-Away Dolls alongside Geraldine Viswanathan. The repetition is likely intentional: This has been described as the second entry of a “lesbian B-movie trilogy” that follows the surprisingly trippy, unorthodox Drive-Away Dolls, which marketing had depicted as more of a crime caper. It does make one wonder if Honey Don’t! will also be a bit stranger than the footage below might lead one to believe. Qualley is joined here by what seems to be a Knives Out-evoking villainous turn for Chris Evans, alongside Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day and Billy Eichner. The film was co-written by Coen and Tricia Cooke, who also teamed for Drive-Away Dolls. According to the official synopsis: “HONEY DON’T! is a dark comedy about Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.”
Qualley seems to be favoring a sort of deadpan humor style for Honey Don’t!, counterpointing her character’s obvious attractiveness with more awkward sensibilities. One thing that stands out in the trailer: The level of blood and comic ultraviolence, which certainly puts one in mind of a few Fargo moments in particular, although Honey Don’t! looks like a somewhat broader comedy. We’ll have a better idea of tone after the film premieres during the Midnight Screenings section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, before an Aug. 22, 2025 release in U.S. theaters. Check out the first trailer for Coen’s newest crime romp below.
