'A booking is a choice': campaign asks theaters to skip Amazon MGM's 'Ali G' sequel

Sacha Baron Cohen's 1990s character returns in 'Ali G: Who Iz I?' on October 23, 2026; NewsCord says the British chain Picturehouse Cinemas replied that it does not plan to screen it.

More than 40,000 emails have asked theater chains not to book Ali G: Who Iz I?, the Amazon MGM Studios sequel dated for October 23, 2026. The campaign, run through the British watchdog site NewsCord, was reported by Deadline on August 29, 2026. Deadline's story does not describe what the trailer shows on screen, and carries no view or comment counts for the video.

The film is not out. What is being argued over is marketing footage and a character with a long paper trail, and the decision the campaign is aimed at sits with the people who book screens, title by title. The last Ali G feature, Ali G Indahouse, went out through Universal in 2002, and Sacha Baron Cohen shelved the character in 2007. The comeback carries the Amazon MGM Studios name.

What is established, and what isn't

1. The ask. NewsCord's campaign text tells supporters to press cinemas to keep the film off their screens, and puts the responsibility on exhibitors: "The screens belong to the chains, and a booking is a choice." Deadline quoted the campaign text on August 29, 2026.
2. The number. Deadline reported that the campaign produced more than 40,000 emails. The outlet does not say how that total was counted or independently checked.
3. The reach. Emails went to at least 15 other chains around the world, according to NewsCord as reported by Deadline. The chains are not named in that account.
4. One reply. NewsCord says the UK chain Picturehouse Cinemas responded that it is not planning to screen the film, Deadline reported. That is NewsCord's account of the reply; Deadline does not carry a statement issued directly by the chain.
5. The allegation. NewsCord posted on X on August 29, 2026 that the character is "a cover to laugh at Jamaican culture," and argued that the joke lands on Black people and on Jamaicans in particular. That is the group's characterization of the material, not a finding.
6. What the campaign cites. Its text points to Black British comedians who in 2000 described the character as an alibi for racism, a comparison drawn by Jeanette Winterson to the Black and White Minstrels, and documentation by Kazakh and Arab organizations about Baron Cohen's earlier work. It also quotes a Sony Pictures UK marketing line for the film. Deadline identifies the sequel as an Amazon MGM Studios release and does not explain the distribution arrangement behind that reference.
7. Questions about the campaigners. Deadline reports that the legitimacy of the AI-enabled UK platform has been questioned, as have the intentions of the campaign, which the outlet describes as run by a pro-Palestine company against a film starring a Jewish actor. Deadline does not name who raised those objections.
8. The social posts. Deadline collected posts on X dated August 28 and 29, 2026 calling the character a racist stereotype and a racist creation, and one post arguing that the criticism is driven by Baron Cohen's Jewish identity.
9. The record behind it. Baron Cohen created Ali G for Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show in 1998, playing a British suburbanite imitating British Jamaican street culture, per Deadline. Da Ali G Show ran on Channel 4 and HBO from 2000 to 2004.

Deadline's story carries no comment from Sacha Baron Cohen or from Amazon MGM Studios, and no theater chain outside the one named has said publicly, in that account, whether it will book the film. The release date has not moved.

Source: deadline.com, retrieved August 30, 2026.