Watch a Short Teaser Video for Peacock’s MacGruber Series, Which Launches on Dec. 16

It took time, but MacGruber found its people. Jorma Taccone’s 2010 film based on Will Forte’s Saturday Night Live character received lackluster reviews and was a box office flop, but the people who saw it tended to like it—including me, who watched it on opening day at a theater in a Boston suburb. Over the last decade the surreal parody of action films and ‘80s-style right-wing jingoism has turned into a legit cult classic, to the point that NBC commissioned a sequel series for its streaming network Peacock. That series now has a release date—Dec. 16—and a new trailer.

Okay, calling this a trailer is doing it a disservice. At over six minutes, it’s less of a trailer than a short prequel that explains what’s happened to MacGruber since the film. Basically, he’s in jail, betrayed by the country that asked him to kill for it and abandoned by his love and former sidekick, Vicki St. Elmo (played by Kristen Wiig). Framed as an interview with a 60 Minutes-style TV newsmagazine, the video immediately dishes out the profane silliness that defines MacGruber, complete with an unnecessarily graphic computer recreation of MacGruber leaving a double-decker for one of America’s enemies. If you’re immune to the charms of Forte and his character, you should probably steer clear; if you aren’t too stuck up to realize how hilarious the movie is, you’ve probably already hit play without even reading this.

The same creative team is in charge here. Forte, Taccone, and John Solomon have written the show, with Taccone directing, and Forte is once again joined on screen by Wiig and Ryan Phillippe. Powers Booth, who played MacGruber’s Richard Crenna-esque US liaison, has sadly passed away, but both Sam Elliott and Laurence Fishburne have joined the show in what could be similar roles. Val Kilmer, who played the movie’s villain Dieter Von Cunth, probably isn’t returning, given his health issues and the fact that his character was killed about six different times at that film’s finale. The villain role in the series is being filled by another ‘80s and ‘90s heartthrob, Billy Zane, who plays Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth. (Talk about consistency.) The eight episode season is just a few weeks away, ensuring some very merry holidays for all the MacGruber fans out there.

Check out the video below, and get ready for MacGruber’s return on Peacock on Dec. 16.