Ali G Goes To America To Reclaim His Glory In New “Who Iz I?” Trailer

Respek is due, gents. After twenty years of laying low, Ali G has crawled out of the West Staines Massiv and straight into a movie theater near you. Sacha Baron Cohen just dropped the first trailer for Ali G: Who Iz I?, and yes, it’s exactly as unhinged as you’re hoping it is.

The Setup

Here’s the plot, for anyone who’s been living under a rock without HBO Max: after two decades spent “chillin’, tokin’ and bonin’,” Ali G gets blindsided by the news that his long-term girlfriend Julie is eight months pregnant. Suddenly staring down the barrel of fatherhood and an extra mouth to feed, he does what any responsible man in his position would do: hop a flight to America and try to reclaim his former glory. Naturally, he runs into enemies along the way who end up threatening both his life and his unborn kid’s.

Julie is played by British comedian Morgana Robinson, and as you can see in the trailer, she shows up looking very pregnant while accompanying Ali G on various outings throughout the footage.

Wait, It’s a Mockumentary?

This is the part that’s got us real excited. Unlike 2002’s “Ali G Indahouse”, which was a scripted comedy, “Who Iz I?” is going full mockumentary. Sacha Baron Cohen shot it in secret, the same way he handled Borat, Brüno, and Who Is America?, which means we’re likely getting real, unsuspecting members of the public getting pranked by a grown man in a yellow tracksuit and cornrows. That’s the format that made Cohen a household name in the first place, and it’s a much better fit for the character than a traditional plot ever could be.

Cohen has described the whole thing as him interviewing subjects and inserting himself into real situations to prank unsuspecting participants, the exact formula that made “Da Ali G Show” and the “Borat” films land so hard.

What’s Actually in the Trailer

The footage opens with Ali G narrating his big comeback. In character, he explains that he’s been gone chilling for twenty years and that the world went to crap in his absence, name-checking wars, Covid, and Ed Sheeran as evidence. He then announces he’s climbing back to the top with a new format he calls a documentary, insisting this time it’s real people, not actors, and that the cameras followed him with nothing off limits for over a year.

From there it’s a parade of classic Ali G chaos. Somebody walks in on him mid bathroom break and gets roped into a conversation anyway. He also mistakes Julie’s positive pregnancy test for a vape and tries to hit it. The trailer also teases him getting the old interview format a glow-up for the podcast and viral video era, so expect plenty of cringe-inducing sit-downs with real people who have no idea what they signed up for.

The Background

A few things worth knowing heading into October:

• This marks Sacha Baron Cohen’s directorial debut. He’s written and produced plenty of his own films before, but this is the first time he’s calling the shots behind the camera too, under his own Four by Two Films banner.
• Ali G goes all the way back to 1998, when Cohen first introduced the character on Channel 4’s “The 11 O’Clock Show” before spinning him off into “Da Ali G Show.” His only prior directing credit was an episode of his HBO docuseries “Who Is America?”
• The project leaked before it was officially confirmed, and Cohen later announced it himself on Instagram in character, joking that “they’ve finally made a documentary about him.”
• Outside the Ali G universe, Cohen has kept busy playing Mephisto in Marvel’s “Ironheart” and starring in Netflix’s “Ladies First” and Prime Video’s “Balls Up.”

Should You Actually Be Hyped?

Look, Ali G was a product of the early 2000s hip hop and UK garage scene, and there’s a fair question about whether that bit still lands in 2026. But the mockumentary angle changes the calculus here. This isn’t a nostalgia cash grab with a script, it’s Cohen doing what he does best: unleashing an absurd character on real people and seeing what happens. If “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” taught us anything, it’s that this format still has teeth twenty years later.

Ali G: Who Iz I? hits theaters everywhere on October 23, 2026, from Amazon MGM Studios.

Get your tracksuit ready!