"Why American accent?": Netizens divided over Taron Egerton's new Tetris trailer

Ahead of its premiere on March 31, 2023, Apple TV dropped the first trailer for Tetris. Starring Taron Egerton of Kingsman fame, the biographical drama is the actor’s first release of the year.

Upon its release, the promotional clip left fans divided. While some expressed their excitement for the upcoming feature, many pointed out the Welsh actor’s American accent.

The film is expected to showcase how Dutch video game designer and entrepreneur Henk Rogers brought the titular game to the entire world. But the path wasn’t rosy as the charismatic man faced stiff opposition from the Soviet government, KGB agents, and Alex Pajitnov, the Soviet software engineer and inventor of the game.

Helmed by the BAFTA-winning Scottish film director Jon S. Baird, Tetris has been produced by Gillian Berrie, Leonard Blavatnik, Gregor Cameron, and Matthew Vaughn.

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Fans comment on Egerton's resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio following the release of the Tetris trailer

The trailer for Tetris, lasting almost 3 minutes, doesn’t waste time in establishing Rogers’ (Taron Egerton) obsession with the game when he says in a pitch meeting:

“I played for five minutes… I still see falling blocks in my dreams. It’s poetry — art and math all working in magical synchronicity. It’s the perfect game.”

Aided by Doghouse’s The Final Countdown in the backdrop, the trailer progresses to show how Rogers made his pitch to Japan-based Nintendo to include the puzzle game in their new, hand-held device, the Game Boy, and the challenges he faced in his aim to bring his beloved game to the world.

The trailer, admittedly, arrests your attention with its sharp dialog, strong acting, and the 1980s setting.

However, the clip left netizens divided at best, with many commenting on Egerton’s unnecessary American accent and how he looked like a copy of Leonardo DiCaprio from The Wolf of Wall Street.

Not all were unwelcoming, though. Several expressed their excitement over its release.

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Cast, synopsis, and other details of Tetris

The synopsis, released by Apple TV+, reads:

“Tetris tells the unbelievable story of how one of the world's most popular video games found its way to avid players around the globe. Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) discovers TETRIS in 1988, and then risks everything by traveling to the Soviet Union, where he joins forces with inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) to bring the game to the masses.”

The streamer describes the film as a “Cold War–era thriller on steroids, with double-crossing villains, unlikely heroes, and a nail-biting race to the finish.”

Apart from Egerton, the cast includes:

• Toby Jones as Robert Stein
• Nikita Yefremov as Alexey Pajitnov
• Roger Allam as Robert Maxwell
• Anthony Boyle as Kevin Maxwell
• Togo Igawa as Hiroshi Yamauchi
• Ben Miles as Howard Lincoln

Written by Noah Pink, the upcoming feature is Egerton’s sixth biographical film after Testament of Youth, Legend, Eddie the Eagle, Billionaire Boys Club, and Rocketman.

Tetris will be released on Apple TV+ on Friday, March 31, 2023.