Yahya Abdul-Mateen II leads By Any Means, a period crime thriller landing in U.S. theaters Friday, September 4, over Labor Day weekend.
Abdul-Mateen plays a young Black FBI agent sent into 1960s Mississippi to investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders. To do it, his character is forced to work alongside notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa, played by Mark Wahlberg. The story is inspired by true events set in 1966.
Elegance Bratton directs from a screenplay by Sascha Penn. Paramount Pictures is distributing.
The role puts Abdul-Mateen at the center of a story about race, justice, and violence in the Deep South, with a Black federal agent navigating a system that offers him little cover. Sending a Black agent into 1960s Mississippi to protect the very people the local power structure wants dead sets up the kind of moral squeeze the film is built on, sharpened by the fact that his only ally is a mob killer with his own agenda.
It is the kind of lead that stretches an actor who has already moved between blockbusters and prestige work. Abdul-Mateen won an Emmy for HBO's Watchmen and has stacked credits across Aquaman, Candyman, Us, The Matrix Resurrections, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Bratton, who broke through with the acclaimed semi-autobiographical drama The Inspection, brings a Black director's eye to material rooted in a painful chapter of American history. The film is inspired by true events, drawing on the FBI's real and controversial use of a mafia informant during its civil-rights-era investigations in Mississippi.
The ensemble runs deep. Nicole Beharie and Giancarlo Esposito join the cast alongside Josh Lucas, Ethan Embry, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, and David Strathairn.
Mark Wahlberg produced the film through his company alongside Stephen Levinson, with Alex Lebovici, Chester Algernal Gordon, Basil Iwanyk, and Erica Lee also producing.
By Any Means arrives in theaters September 4, 2026.
