After two “Thor” movies and taking on Nazi Germany in 2019’s “Jojo Rabbit,” what’s a film project Taika Watiti could do to spice things up? How about a sports movie about undergods that the director deems as “basically the “Cool Runnings” of soccer”? Enter “Next Goal Wins,” Waititi’s new film out next April, about the true story of an American Samoan soccer team who went from one of the worst teams in the world to an elite squad.
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And EW has the scoop on “Next Goal Wins” in an all-new first look at the film. Based on a 2014 documentary of the same name, the movie stars Michael Fassbender as the Dutch soccer player/coach Thomas Rongen, who transforms a perenially weak team into a force on the field. And weak may not be a strong enough word: this team was as bad as they come. “The story is about the worst soccer team in the world, who famously experienced the biggest loss in an international match against Australia, 31-0, which is about a goal every four minutes,” explained Waititi. “After suffering that huge defeat, they applied to the soccer federation to find a coach who could get them from the very, very bottom of the FIFA rankings.” That’s where Fassbender’s Rongen comes in, and against all odds, the team’s fortunes change.
Waititi saw the 2014 doc years ago, and the story always stuck with him, so much so he knew he wanted to make it into a feature film. “I’d never made a sports film before, and I really wanted to try that out. It’s about a sport I don’t know that much about,” said the director. But even though the New Zealand-born Waititi knows rugby better than soccer, he thought the team’s underdog story was too good not to tell. “Rugby is the national sport in New Zealand, but it’s about underdogs, and I just love underdog stories,” Waititi continued. “Most of my films are about people who live on the margins, or are a little bit left out, and it just fit right in for me. It’s a true story, but it’s got all the elements that all the great sports films have.”
And Fassbender’s Rongen is also a bit of an outsider as a fish out of water coaching in an unfamiliar place. “[Rongen] had a pretty good playing career and then he had a bunch of coaching jobs in the States,” said Waititi about Fassbender’s character. “He was really the only person who answered the call. He was the one who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go down there and give it a go.'” The film also stars Elisabeth Moss as Rongen’s ex-wife and Will Arnett as a fictional soccer exec. Other cast members include Somoan-New Zealand actor Oscar Kightley, who plays the head of American Samoa soccer, and newcomer Kamaina, the best player on Rongen’s squad. “Jaiya is a trans player — one of the star players of the team — and a lot of the film revolves around her relationship with Thomas Rongen,” explained Waititi.
Even though “Next Goal Wins” is a riveting true story, Waititi still had to add in some extra fictional friction to make the movie’s stakes more dramatic. That’s where Arnett’s soccer executive comes in. “The thing about turning documentaries into films is, often documentaries don’t have a villain,” Waititi said about Arnett’s character. “but you need some sort of outside force that’s threatening the team to give the story some stakes. That’s what I’ve been conditioned to learn in Hollywood. It’s like, ‘Well, you can’t just have a story where nothing bad ever happens to anyone!'”
Don’t expect Arnett’s presence to overshadow what Waititi finds most notable about “Next Goal Wins,” though: its story about a community not often depicted on the big screen. “Honestly, it’s just good to put brown faces on film and to have a Polynesian presence in cinema in a really significant way,” said Waititi. “Elisabeth and Will come in at the end, so basically it’s just brown faces and Michael Fassbender.”
But will this feel-good underdog story find appeal with the general audience? Find out when “Next Goal Wins” hits theaters on April 21, 2023.
