Cliff Booth Trailer Officially Explains Why Leonardo DiCaprio Didn’t Return With Brad Pitt

David Fincher and Brad Pitt are finally back on screen together in The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth. The Netflix film’s trailer was recently released, and while it does not reveal the full plot, it still reveals some details regarding its setting and the current circumstances of some fan-favorite characters.

Brad Pitt first played the character in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which he starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. Cliff Booth was the stuntman for DiCaprio’s character Rick Dalton in the movie. The new trailer has revealed why the two went their separate ways after the events of the 2019 film.

Cliff Booth & Rick Dalton’s Separation Revealed in New Trailer

A still from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | Credits: Sony Pictures Releasing

Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth has become one of the most iconic characters of the past few years. Despite a controversial past, which is only hinted at in OUATIH, Pitt’s stuntman character benefited from the actor’s charm and chill attitude. In the original film, he is the trusted stuntman of Rick Dalton, the yesteryear TV star played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

At the end of the film, the duo decides to go their separate ways after Dalton comes back from making Italian movies, and they have a final day of drinking during the climactic events. In the latest trailer for The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, Brad Pitt’s character finally reveals the exact reason for their separation.

The film focuses entirely on Booth, with Dalton nowhere to be seen, at least for now. In one scene in the recently released trailer, Booth says,

Rick got too fat for me to double him anymore.

While it is a silly reason, the fact that they are separated is already established in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with Rick Dalton already looking at a new phase in his career. Despite Pitt saving DiCaprio’s character at the end of the movie and getting the tag of being a great friend, they still seemed to have gone their separate ways.

Brad Pitt Returns as Cliff Booth 8 Years After the Events of OUATIH

Brad Pitt in The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth | Credits: Netflix

Despite being a relatively less dramatic role for the actor, Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth has become one of the best characters in his filmography. The actor’s performance was lauded by critics and fans alike, and Pitt even won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the role. He is now back as the stuntman in The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.

Unlike the flagship film, this David Fincher-directed spinoff seems to lean more into a crime thriller zone rather than a Hollywood dedication. While the plot for The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is yet to be officially revealed, the trailers hint at a larger crime scheme going on involving Pitt, Elizabeth Debicki, and Scott Caan’s characters. It might take a comedy-drama-thriller route like OUATIH.

The trailer also revealed that the film is set in 1977, 8 years after the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which took place on the fateful evening of the Tate Murders in 1969. While the film was a revisionist history, with Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate surviving the murder attempt by the Manson Family, Cliff Booth might be more of a straight shooter.

The movie might not be the last we see of Cliff Booth, though. Quentin Tarantino, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, will reportedly be releasing a novel centered on the character by the end of the year (via Variety). The novel is titled The Adventures of Cliff Booth. It is yet to be seen if the novel will follow the same plotline as the movie.

What did you think about the trailer for The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth? Comment below.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth will be released in limited IMAX theatres on November 25, 2026, and on Netflix on December 23, 2026.