Bob Odenkirk Stars In ‘The Room Returns,’ And The First Trailer Is Finally Here

The first trailer for The Room Returns, a charity remake of the legendary 2003 cult film The Room, written, directed by, and starring Tommy Wiseau, has arrived, with Bob Odenkirk playing Wiseau’s breakout character Johnny. Directed by Brando Crawford, The Room Returns was made the cheapest way possible, shot in less than 12 hours, and scenes were shot in front of a green screen; it frugally avoided any rehearsals, with the cast watching off teleprompters while filming the whole movie.

Proceeds benefit charity; a Los Angeles premiere takes place on June 26, 2026, to benefit amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, and Blue Collaborative, a non-profit that supports independent artists.

Bob Odenkirk Takes Over Johnny’s Iconic Role In The Room Returns

The trailer kicks off with Bob Odenkirk saying one of the most immortal lines in the history of The Room, ”Why Lisa why?!” before throwing a bouquet of roses and pillows and skipping through many of the original film’s most emotional touchstones.

These include all the classics: ”you’re tearing me apart, Lisa”, and the jarring climax, in which Odenkirk’s Johnny picks up a gun while asking for forgiveness. The shoddy quality of the product, no rehearsals, camera-mounted teleprompter, green screen everywhere, is not surreptitiously hidden but rather corrupted and celebrated.

Bob Odenkirk who is known for his roles in Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Mr. Show with Bob and David is accompanied by a cast of actors, including Bella Heathcote, Kate Siegel, Arturo Castro, Dilone Rivkah Reyes, Jarad Schwartz, Cameron Kasky and Greg Sestero (who originally played Mark in The Room), who take on the role of Chris-R in the remake. Also included in the cast is director Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Fall of the House of Usher), who is also executive producer for the remake alongside Schwartz.

The Room Returns has already played in New York City and Chicago, with the next screening at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on June 26, 2026, to be accompanied by a Q&A with Crawford and Schwartz. It hasn’t yet received a general theatrical release.

Odenkirk told ScreenRant last year that the delay was due to legal troubles supposedly instigated by Wiseau, but public screenings have continued, suggesting that it has been overcome. He revealed,

I don’t know what happened. I think that Tommy won’t allow it. First of all, I don’t know what he thinks of it. I did not do it to make fun of it. In fact, the opposite. I did it to see if I could make it work with me in the role – like, really honestly, doing it as well as I could do it. I tried to treat the words with respect, and so I thought that would be the most interesting thing I could do. And also, we did it for charity, so I don’t know why he won’t let it be released. But I think it’s a legal thing.

The Room was Wiseau’s first feature as director and it has acquired a reputation as a highly notorious, widely documented troubled production in cinema history; because of excess production costs, on a self-funded $6 million budget, numerous cast and crew walkouts, a disastrous 2003 cinema release that earned just $1,916 in its initial two-week run, though it has since accumulated around $5.3 million through cult midnight screenings worldwide (via Box Office Mojo, as of June 21, 2026).

The film’s notoriety was later documented by Greg Sestero in his memoir The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, co-written with Tom Bissell, which was adapted by James Franco into The Disaster Artist (2017), which earned Franco a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical, while screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber received the film’s sole Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Have you watched The Room? Let us know in the comments below!

The Room Returns premieres in Los Angeles on June 26, 2026.