Booyakasha! Sacha Baron Cohen Has Finished a New Ali G Film

Staines's most famous political "correspondent," Ali G, is returning to cinema 24 years after 2002's Ali G Indahouse. According to a report from The InSneider, filming on the new movie has wrapped, with locations including Oxfordshire, where Sacha Baron Cohen was spotted in character last summer, as well as various locations in the U.S. The film's title and release date have not yet been announced; the star's representatives declined to comment.

The character's return was first rumored back in 2023, but the writers' and actors' strikes in the U.S. delayed the project for years. Ali G, the tracksuit-clad, naive "voice of youth," first appeared in 1998 on Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show and quickly landed his own series. Although Sacha Baron Cohen announced in 2007 that he was retiring both Ali G and Borat, both characters have made occasional comebacks since.

Like Borat and 2009's Brüno, the new Ali G film is believed to have been shot largely in secret, featuring interviews with unsuspecting subjects. Ali G's past "victims" have included a bewildered Newt Gingrich and a furious Tony Benn. Cohen's most recent project, Netflix's gender-swap comedy Ladies First, was poorly received by critics; this return to his signature character looks set to be his most closely watched project since his Oscar-nominated The Trial of the Chicago 7.