On June 26, 2026, the long shopping cart ride will come to an end. The fifth and allegedly final Jackass film, Jackass: Best and Last, will be hitting theaters, concluding the journey that began 26 years ago on the legendary MTV series.
Even from the trailer, it’s clear this movie will not only deliver the typical insanity expected from the Jackass crew, but that it will also feature a good dose of heartfelt nostalgia. Johnny Knoxville gets visibly choked up in the trailer, and decades-old archival footage can’t help but tug at the heartstrings of those who grew up with these guys. Particularly emotional are the moments from the trailer featuring departed cast member Ryan Dunn, who passed away in 2011, and Bam Margera, who left the crew years ago due to his battles with substance abuse.
Behind the camera, it’s also been an emotional journey for director Jeff Tremaine, who has been the Jackass director since the beginning, including every Jackass film. So as part of our Summer Preview Package, Polygon spoke with Tremaine over the phone to ask about Jackass: Best and Last, its newest (robotic) cast member, and how Dunn and Margera will be included in the film.
Polygon: To start, I’d love to hear which of the archival clips included in this movie was the most nostalgic for you.
Jeff Tremaine: We shot this bit a long time ago that was never allowed to air on TV. We called it “The Convict,” where Johnny Knoxville is dressed up as an escaped convict wearing an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs on and he goes into a hardware store and tries to borrow a hacksaw to cut them off. We went back in and re-edited it and were able to put it in the movie. Getting that one to finally be seen by the public is pretty cool and it’s very nostalgic because we shot it back in early 2000.
How much of the movie is new stuff versus archival?
About half. And with all the archival stuff, we went back in and we looked at everything and added new shots that have never been seen. We tried to look at everything with new eyes. There’s a bunch of things that have never been seen, whether we were not allowed to or we never aired them for some reason.
Obviously these are very different situations, but from the trailer it looks like there was an effort to include both Ryan Dunn and Bam Margera in this film. Can you talk about how that was done?
Bam signed off on his old stuff so we got all that in there and even some stuff he shot with us for the last movie that we didn’t put in. So there’s some unseen Bam stuff and lots of Ryan. It’s got everybody.
I wanted to ask you about the new cast member we see in the trailer, Larry the robot. Where did the idea of having a robot come from?
Well, Knoxville wanted to have a robot cast member. Then one of the guys who ran the robot came up with the idea to give a cast member a prostate exam using this robot. The hand that it was able to do the prostate exam with is not a good hand for a prostate exam, meaning that the fingers were a little larger and not the right shape. So we did that and it turned out to be one of the funniest things we filmed.
Is there anything else you can tell me about the robot?
Yeah, he’s kind of a jerk. Comedian Adam Ray did the voice and that robot is mean. The robot’s creepy, man. When he walks up to you, it’s very strange and you can’t trust that thing. I didn’t like him.
Is this really the last film? Because the previous one was thought maybe to be the last one too, right?
I think all of them were thought to be the last ones, but this is the first time where I’m actually saying, “Yes, it is the last one.” I believe it this time, whereas all the other times I was always a little leery. We thought the first Jackass movie was the last one and then we made a second one and then a third and then a fourth, but this one is the last one.
How do you know?
It just feels like it’s time. I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. I think this movie wraps up the franchise in the way we would want it to.
Jackass: Best and Last releases in theaters on June 26, 2026.
