Mel Gibson Is a Dangerous Santa Claus in the First Trailer for Fatman

We haven’t yet reached Halloween, so clearly it’s time to get that Christmas hype flowing, right? Someone had to be the first to put out an irreverent Christmas movie trailer—the kind of thing that makes a very small percentage of viewers say “Oh no, you can’t say THAT about Christmas!”—and it might as well be a film starring Mel Gibson as the titular jolly old elf. After all, Hollywood has decided to act as if the actor’s history of anti-semitic statements never existed, so that makes him a perfect paragon to play Santa, right?

Fatman is an upcoming dark comedy feature (emphasis on “dark”) that envisions Chris Cringle (Gibson) as a broken down old warhorse who has fallen on hard times. How he was ever turning a profit in the past, delivering free toys all over the world, we’re not sure. But things get a whole lot worse when he pisses off the wrong kid in particular. According to the official synopsis:

To save his declining business, Chris Cringle (Mel Gibson), also known as Santa Claus, is forced into a partnership with the U.S. military. Making matters worse, Chris gets locked into a deadly battle of wits against a highly skilled assassin (Walton Goggins), hired by a precocious 12-year-old after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking. ‘Tis the season for Fatman to get even, in the action-comedy that keeps on giving.

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Yes, it’s another one of those comedies in the tradition of Bad Santa that puts men doing terrible things into the Santa suit, with the joke being “Santa doesn’t typically behave this way, so it’s funny.” Looking at the trailer below, it is curious that this version of Santa seems to have survived numerous assassination attempts already—is it just us, or would the concept be funnier if Gibson was playing an archetypal Santa who has never encountered violence in his life, and is totally perplexed by why someone is trying to kill him?

Regardless, Fatman will briefly waltz into a limited theatrical run on Nov. 13, 2020 (to qualify for the Oscars, no doubt), before likely being seen by a bigger audience on VOD starting on Nov. 17. Check out the full trailer below.