Lionsgate has released the teaser for Killing Castro, a Cold War political thriller with Diego Boneta as a young Fidel Castro and Al Pacino as the CIA man sent after him. It opens in theaters on December 11, 2026, and comes to digital on December 18.
The story
The film is built on the true events of Castro's visit to New York City in 1960. With the CIA, the FBI and the Mafia all closing in, the goal is to stop him from giving a pivotal speech at the United Nations. Then Castro unexpectedly moves to Harlem's Hotel Theresa at the invitation of Malcolm X, and a CIA operative, a young translator and a hotel worker are all drawn into a covert plot against him.
Who's in it
Boneta plays Fidel Castro and Pacino plays Robert Maheu, the CIA operative. Xolo Maridueña is Leonel, the translator, and KiKi Layne is Ava, who works at the hotel. Kendrick Sampson plays Malcolm X, Logan Marshall-Green is mobster Johnny Roselli, Paul Ben-Victor is Sam Giancana, and Frankie Faison plays Love B. Woods, the Hotel Theresa's owner. Alexander Ludwig, Ron Livingston, Nicole Beharie and Titus Welliver round out the cast.
Behind the camera
Eif Rivera directs, in his feature debut, from a screenplay by Thomas V. DeGrezia and Leon Hendrix III, based on an earlier script by Colin Bateman. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and DJ Khaled are behind the project, and Christina Weiss Lurie and Brad Feinstein produce. The film premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June and is rated R.
A Romulus Entertainment and Fourth & Twenty Eight Films production, distributed by Lionsgate.