When it comes to redefining the Christmas movie season, the evil one is hoping to give Saint Nick a run for his money.
Paramount+ has released a trailer for “Dear Santa,” a new Christmas comedy that introduces a very different version of the devil — played by none other than Jack Black. Directed by Bobby Farrelly of the Farrelly brothers team, who directed hits like “Dumb and Dumber” and “There’s Something About Mary,” the film follows a young boy who accidentally summons Satan while trying to send a letter to Santa Claus.
After Liam Turner (played by Robert Timothy Smith) mistakenly misspells "Santa" in his letter, he instead is greeted with an unexpected summoning of the devil, who offers Liam a tempting deal: three wishes, but with a heavy price — his soul.
“You, my friend, are getting three wishes,” the devilish Santa tells the boy. “ ... By the way, after you make your wishes, I'm taking your soul.”
The trailer shows the movie veering into a series of wacky and unexpected hi-jinks: in one moment, Liam and Satan perform onstage at a concert featuring Post Malone, who makes a cameo along with a cast that includes Keegan-Michael Key, Brianne Howey, Hayes MacArthur and P. J. Byrne.
After telling Liam, “Let me show you a few of the things I can do for you,” the trailer shows gambling, swimming atop a pile of cash, and hanging out with a rock star (Malone).
At one point, the family stages an intervention where Liam says, “Look, I'm worried Satan is going to trick me into getting my soul,” to which Key’s character responds into the camera, “He’s nuts.”
In another scene, Satan shrinks down to give Liam romantic advice while nestled in the class pet’s cage. Along the way, Satan's cruel nature starts to soften as he becomes more engaged with Liam's innocent charm.
At one point, the devil even laments, “I’ve tried everything. The kid’s incorruptible,” while standing over a bright red pentagram.
Based on the trailer, fans of Black's previous work are sure to make comparisons to his performance in 2023's “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” where Black voiced the villainous Bowser.
In one of the film’s teasers, the camera pans up from Santa’s familiar boots and red suit to reveal the face of Black’s Satan with devilish horns. He stares directly into the camera, breaking the fourth wall, as he says, “What? You were expecting someone else?”
The trailer also features numerous shots in which Black flashes his familiar “devil horns” hand signal, including while reading with Liam and playing a game of “beer pong.”
Black is no stranger to playing satanic characters, from his role in metal band Tenacious D to his appearances in satirical content like "Prop 8: The Musical," which took aim at opponents of California’s same-sex marriage law. As part of the production, Jesus, played by Black, intervenes in a debate between pro- and anti-Prop 8 Christians, and remarks, "The Bible says a lot of things, you know?"
Along with Kyle Gass, Black is also a founding member of the metal duo Tenacious D, whose songs include odes to the devil like "Beelzeboss" and 2001’s "Tribute," which portrays the band’s encounter with a demonic figure who threatens to take their souls if the duo can’t play "the best song in the world.”
Satan also figures prominently in the duo’s 2006 film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, in which the band challenges the devil — played by Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl — to a “rock-off.”
In a promotional stunt for the video game Brutal Legend, Black led a satanic prayer at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards as a tribute to metal music.
During the show, Black took the stage as his Brutal Legend character Eddie Riggs and said, “Since we’re giving a rock award tonight, who wants to pray to the devil with me?”
He then told the audience to take the hand of someone next to them and then prayed on stage, “Dear Dark Lord Satan … I wanted to say hi and ask you to grant tonight’s nominees continued success in the music industry.”
An IMDb satire news article from 2002 — which has since been deleted — even has a “tongue firmly in cheek” headline, “Jack Black loves Satan,” in which the star is described as an “unashamed worshipper of Satan.”
Black is quoted in the article clip as saying, “I love Satan. Christianity is so boring. If 'Star Wars' didn't have that evil imprint, they wouldn't sell two tickets. Satan sells tickets. That dude, Darth Maul, he was down with Satan.”
While Black was raised Jewish — he recounted in a 2022 podcast that he caught the acting bug as a young boy while attending a Passover seder — he told NPR in 2012 that he considers himself “kind of an atheist.”
"I don't have any real spirituality in my life — I'm kind of an atheist — but when music can take me to the highest heights, it's almost like a spiritual feeling. It fills that void for me,” he told NPR’s Terry Gross.
