Mother LA on Blowing Up Tropes (and Zac Efron) for Battlefield 6

The live-action Battlefield 6 teaser, ‘Only in Battlefield’, opens like a Hollywood blockbuster.

Zac Efron, Jimmy Butler, Morgan Wallen, and Paddy Pimblett exit a vehicle and walk in slow motion toward battle. The grade is warm and golden, skin flawless, eyes glistening, and a scene that feels totally predictable. Then BOOM. The celebs are blown away to reveal everyday players navigating the grit, dust, and stakes of the battlefield.

Directed by Imperial Woodpecker’s Simon McQuoid and premiering during NFL’s Sunday Night Football ahead of the game’s October 10 launch, the spot sets up a suitably bold gaming ad with a self-aware twist that literally blows up its own tropes.

To find out more about the making of the ad, LBB spoke to Mother LA, the creative agency that led the charge. Creative director Joey Johnson says the decision to misdirect with celebrities was twofold. “One being we wanted to do something that sets aside the competition and cements what Battlefield is. The other being the need to do that in a very big way that gets attention.”

He said blowing up the celebrities was one of those ideas that, once said, they couldn’t get away from. “It’s such a simple idea that nothing else even came close to how clear and audacious that message is,” he explains.

That clarity hit for game publisher Electronic Arts, too. Speaking about the spot, EA’s SVP Anthony Stevenson said the film captures what makes Battlefield distinct. “Squads are everything in Battlefield, and we love that this film puts them at the forefront, working together to accomplish the objective, just like our players do in-game… all set up by some blockbuster talent to help tell the story.”

But how did the team go about making the live-action world feel true to Battlefield’s scale and authenticity without it coming across like every other shooter ad? Mother creative director Shelby Tamura said most of its kind lean on the crutches of celebrity cameos or overblown VFX. “We used those same clichés, but only to show what Battlefield isn’t,” she says. “The celebrity intro was deliberately loud and glossy, a wink at action-movie tropes. Once they’re gone, the camera drops to the ground: gritty, up-close combat with massive scale and destruction erupting around the squad.”

Visually, the team drew inspiration from Alex Garland’s film adaptation of the Civil War for the ad’s aesthetic. “Everything had to feel visceral: real sets, real props, real effects. Every weapon and gadget looked exactly as it does in-game. And with a stunt team of military veterans, the actors moved and fought with an authenticity that grounded the whole piece,” says Shelby.

Fellow creative director Joey Johnson says the tone changed shape “many, many times” as the team knew the action had to be intense, while the moment the celebrities blew up had to generate shock and a laugh. Those things were never in question; “however, the dialogue between the squadmates took on many different iterations.”

The creatives continued to return to the contrast between the celebrities and the squad. “They had to feel like a unit on a mission together, so most of the one-liners we tried just felt like we were breaking that immersion. But those laughs in the film were ones we captured as the cast reacted to the special effects going off around them, which were very real and tension-breaking. So we kept those in and think they work great for keeping it light-hearted yet real,” says Joey. Shelby describes it as ‘little moments of banter to break the tension without breaking the immersion.’

The transition point between the celebs and the squad was one of the most crucial elements of the film. “We had to establish that all the celebrities are gone, the new heroes are here, and they have a mission to get to.” Hence the exchanges of ‘Who was that?’ and ‘Doesn’t matter. Let’s move’.

Battlefield 6 launches globally on October 10, but for EA and Mother LA, its mission is accomplished.