The first trailer for Jimmy, a new biopic about Jimmy Stewart, was released on what would have been the actor’s 118th birthday, bringing the film’s first look to Stewart’s hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. The movie, which is set to open in theaters nationwide on Nov. 6, centers on the untold story of his military service in World War II.
Stars and producers gathered in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on May 20 for the trailer reveal, with KJ Apa portraying Stewart and director Aaron Burns attending alongside Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, Stewart’s daughter and an executive producer on the film. The hometown event gave the rollout a personal cast: this was not just a studio launch, but a return to the place where Stewart’s story began.
The timing carried its own weight. Stewart won an Oscar and was nominated four additional times, but the film aims to look past the familiar Hollywood image and into the period Burns says reshaped Stewart’s life. Burns said he knew Stewart first as an actor before reading about his decision to fight in World War II, which took him out of Hollywood and onto the battlefield. He described Stewart as a man who grew up in a small town, had a faithful father who was a deacon in the Presbyterian church, and later felt a hollowness even after becoming a major star.
At the event, the Jimmy Stewart Museum unveiled a new exhibit called The Making of 'Jimmy.' The display is meant to offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at the production and includes props, costumes and an extensive collection of photography from the set. For a film built around memory and legacy, the exhibit turned the rollout into something more tangible: a chance to see how the project was assembled before audiences ever buy a ticket.
Apa said Stewart was a hero and described his legacy of service to the United States, his global reach through film and his devotion to family as unparalleled. He said taking on the role was an enormous responsibility and that the goal of Jimmy is to honor Stewart’s legacy, service and family while reminding audiences that heroes such as Stewart did and still do exist. Burns echoed that tone, saying hope and inspiration were at the heart of who Stewart was on screen and in life, and that debuting the trailer in Indiana, Pennsylvania, was meant to honor his legacy and inspire a new generation.
The film’s release comes with one quiet wrinkle that hangs over the project: Stewart’s public image is already so fixed in American memory that any new portrait has to compete with it. Burns said the early 1940s were a time when war clouds were on the horizon, and the story of Stewart’s choice to serve is meant to confront the gap between movie-star myth and wartime duty. The real test for the film now is whether it can make that second life feel as enduring as the first.
Jimmy opens nationwide on Nov. 6, but the trailer’s hometown debut and museum exhibit have already framed it as more than a standard biopic release. For Stewart’s family, for his hometown and for the filmmakers, the question is no longer whether the film will tell his story. It is whether it can tell the part that was left out for too long.
