The film will follow Stewart’s rise in Hollywood as well as his enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the beginning of World War II.

See first look at KJ Apa as Jimmy Stewart in Jimmy teaser

The film will follow Stewart's rise in Hollywood as well as his enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the beginning of World War II.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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December 17, 2025 11:00 a.m. ET

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KJ Apa as Jimmy Stewart in 'Jimmy'. Credit:

Burns & Co./YouTube

KJ Apa is bringing Jimmy Stewart’s wonderful life to the big screen. **

The *Riverdale* alum stars as the legendary actor and aviator in the new teaser trailer for the upcoming biopic *Jimmy*. The clip opens with Apa stepping directly into Stewart’s shoes and evoking his signature drawl as he films a scene for the universally-loved Christmas classic,* It’s A Wonderful Life. ***

“You are a star,” Jason Alexander, playing film producer and MGM co-founder Louis B. Mayer, tells Apa’s Stewart. “And America needs stars right now.”

However, with the imminent threat of World War II looming overhead, Stewart attempts to enlist in the United States military, only to be denied because of his acting career.  **

“Don’t I have the right to serve my country just like anyone else does?” he asks Rob Riggle’s Colonel Terrill, who simply replies, “America can’t afford to lose Jimmy Stewart.”

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But where there’s a will, there’s a way. In subsequent clips, Stewart can be seen engaged in a snowball fight in the barracks, riding motorcycles through war zones, and in a life-or-death situation while operating a plane careening toward Earth. **

“Someday, I’d like to be able to look at myself in the mirror and see a good man looking back at me,” Stewart says.

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Directed by Aaron Burns (Birthright Outlaw), *Jimmy* is set to chart its titular star's rise in Hollywood, including his Oscar win for *The Philadelphia Story*, before his enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a combat pilot at the beginning of World War II. It isn't until he returns home from war, however, that he stars in Frank Capra's *It's a Wonderful Life* in 1946.

Apa previously revealed that he was "so honored" to help bring Stewart's story to life.

"As someone from New Zealand, I've long admired that generation of American men who stood for patriotism, integrity, and a deep sense of duty," he said in a press statement. "It is important to me to give back to a country that has given me so much, and what better way to do that than by honoring a man who served it with great honor."

Joining Apa on his quest to bring Stewart’s life to the big screen are Alexander, Riggle, Max Casella, Kara Killmer, Sarah Drew, Julian Works, Liam Bixby, and more. **

*Jimmy* arrives in theaters on Nov. 6, 2026. Watch the trailer above.

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