Zac Efron's 2024 Comedy: A Step Back After His 2023 Success

Zac Efron's Acting Journey

After the success of Zac Efron’s film The Iron Claw, his upcoming 2024 comedy seems like a worrying step back. When Zac Efron first broke out after High School Musical, he took on roles as the goofy leading man in raunchy comedies and rom-coms. This became the typecast that followed him around for almost a decade. While he took on roles in great projects different from his typecast, like Parkland and The Disaster Artist, they haven’t gained as much attention or appreciation.

Zac Efron sweating profusely as Kevin Von Erich in The Iron Claw movie

This started to shift in 2019 when Efron played Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile. Efron garnered three nominations and two wins for his acting in this film. Unfortunately, this occurred right before the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed the traction. The 2023 wrestling film The Iron Claw's reviews amplified the momentum, proving once again that Efron is more than the typecast into which he’s pigeonholed. This raises the question of where Zac Efron will go next in his acting career.

Reverting Back to Typical Roles

After the success of The Iron Claw, there’s a lot of attention on where Zac Efron will go with his acting in 2024. The first glimpse of his next project comes in the YouTube video “What's Coming To Prime Video In 2024.” A clip shows Efron, Andrew Santino, and Jermaine Fowler toasting shots to a made-up person called Ricky Stanicky. Ricky Stanicky’s synopsis reveals that the three friends created a person to blame for everything bad they do, but they scramble to hire an actor when their wives insist on meeting the eponymous character. This clip and synopsis are reminiscent of Dirty Grandpa and Neighbors.

Three friends sit at a bar holding up shot glasses in the trailer for Ricky Stanicky.

Another Efron film coming out in 2024 is A Family Affair, a highly-anticipated Netflix rom-com. In this film, Efron will play the former boss of Joey King’s character. She discovers that his character is having an affair with her mother, played by Nicole Kidman. This movie sounds tonally reminiscent of That Awkward Moment and New Year’s Eve. While both 2024 movies sound entertaining, they do risk reversing the progress Efron has made in being considered a dramatic actor in the film industry.

Why 2024 Could Still Be Zac Efron's Year

Despite the concern about the upcoming Zac Efron movies, it could still be an extremely successful year for him as an actor. The actor is incredible at performing in comedy movies, bringing depth and personality to characters. He will undoubtedly offer amazing performances in both Ricky Stanicky and A Family Affair. Additionally, Netflix was expected to release A Family Affair in 2023, being pushed to 2024 because of the strikes. As such, it will likely receive the view boost expected of movies released after the strikes.

On top of these two movies, a third highly anticipated Efron movie is expected to come out towards the end of 2024 – the remake of Three Men and a Baby. The original movie became iconic enough to warrant a sequel. With that in mind, Efron’s version of Three Men and a Baby will have both the actor and the built-in audience to increase views. These are also only confirmed projects. After the success of The Iron Claw, other projects might bring him on board. If Efron performs as well as he typically does in all his upcoming projects, 2024 could continue to propel the actor’s career forward after The Iron Claw.