The Madden trailer gives football fans their first real look at Nicolas Cage becoming John Madden, a man whose name became so connected to the sport that different generations know him for completely different reasons.
Some remember Madden as the coach who led the Oakland Raiders. Others can still hear his voice calling huge games on Sunday afternoons. Then there are millions who first saw the name Madden on a video game box.
That is what makes Madden such an interesting movie.
For decades, John Madden’s name has been tied so closely to football that it is almost impossible to separate the two. Now Nicolas Cage is taking on the man behind that name in Madden, the new Prime Video movie arriving November 18.
And based on the new trailer, the movie is not interested in telling just one part of his story.
This is Madden the coach. Madden the broadcaster. Madden the video game pioneer. And maybe most importantly, Madden the guy who simply loved football enough to spend his life finding new ways to share it with everybody else.
Madden trailer puts Nicolas Cage inside a football legend
Playing John Madden was never going to be a quiet assignment.
Nicolas Cage steps into the role, with Christian Bale playing Raiders owner Al Davis. The film follows their relationship through Madden’s years with the Oakland Raiders, including the team’s Super Bowl XI championship, before moving into the chapters of his life that made him famous far beyond the sidelines.
The cast also includes Kathryn Hahn as Madden’s wife Virginia, John Mulaney as Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, Sienna Miller as Carol Davis and Shane Gillis. David O. Russell directed the movie and wrote the screenplay from an earlier script by Cambron Clark.
The Madden trailer gives football fans glimpses of several different sides of the man, which makes sense considering just how much ground his career covered.
That cast alone gives football and movie fans plenty to be curious about.
But Madden’s life gives them even more.
John Madden’s legacy went far beyond coaching
Madden coached the Raiders for 10 seasons and finished with a .759 regular season winning percentage. Then he walked away from coaching and somehow became just as important to football from the broadcast booth.
That voice became part of the game.
The telestrator drawings. The enthusiasm. The way he could explain what was happening without making viewers feel like they needed to be NFL coaches themselves.
Madden spent more than three decades broadcasting games and worked for all four major networks during that run. For millions of fans, hearing Madden meant a big football game was about to happen.
And then came something nobody could have predicted would become just as important to the John Madden legacy.
Madden NFL taught generations of fans the game
Electronic Arts approached Madden in 1984 about helping create a football video game.
Madden wanted the thing to actually resemble football.
That meant 11 players against 11 players. No shortcuts just because the technology made it easier. Madden viewed the game as a way for people to learn football and participate in it at a surprisingly sophisticated level.
The first John Madden Football arrived in 1988.
What followed became much bigger than a yearly sports game. Kids learned formations from Madden. Friends spent entire afternoons playing against each other. NFL players eventually grew up with the same game that was trying to recreate what they did on Sundays.
For younger fans especially, Madden became more than a person.
It became football.
The movie has a lot of story to tell
Plenty of sports movies can focus on one championship or one remarkable season.
Madden gets to tell the story of somebody who essentially had three separate football careers and left a mark in every one of them.
He won as a coach. He changed how the sport sounded on television. Then he helped create a video game that brought football into people’s homes in an entirely different way.
That gives Nicolas Cage quite a character to play.
And for fans who only know Madden from the game, the movie could finally introduce them to the man whose name has been staring back at them from the screen for decades.
The Madden trailer suggests there is a lot more to that name than even longtime players of Madden NFL may realize.
Check out the official trailer below.
Madden premieres November 18 on Prime Video.
You May Also Like:
