John Reynolds opens up about his first feature as a writer and producer, the pressure of making “Never Change!” feel fun, and why casting friends like Jo Firestone and John Early mattered—ahead of the film’s 2026 Tribeca premiere and its Hulu streaming release
When John Reynolds talks about “Never Change!,” he doesn’t sound like he’s selling a punchline. He sounds like someone who knows exactly how quickly a set can turn from “fun” into “pressure,” especially when it’s his first feature film as a writer and producer.
The comedy—now available to stream on Hulu—follows a group of millennials who must return to high school for two weeks due to a legal loophole. It’s Reynolds’ first feature as a writer and producer. directed by his close friend Marty Schousboe. who helped develop the story. And for Reynolds. the goal from the start was simple: keep the energy light. even while carrying the weight of making every take work.
“I felt a lot of pressure, obviously,” Reynolds told IndieWire. “Just because I wanted everyone to have a good time, and I felt so grateful for them being there. I wanted it to be a fun time, and that was the most important thing.”
As an actor, Reynolds said, he can step back. “As an actor,” he said, “you can check out. If there’s a problem, you’re like, ‘That’s not my problem. I’m just going to be a nice guy today.’ It’s just a different level of responsibility [as a writer/producer]. You have to watch every single take, be at the monitor, and make sure everyone’s comfortable.”.
That responsibility lands especially hard in the lead-up to the film’s premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. Reynolds is a Midwesterner, and it shows up in how he talks about high school—where, in his telling, the social world wasn’t neatly divided into tropes.
Reynolds attended Madison West High School in Madison, Wisconsin, where he played sports, acted in theater, and performed improv comedy. When he described those experiences, he pushed back on the art-kid-versus-jock movie shorthand. “In a lot of movies. they have these tropes where there’s the art kids and the jocks. and everything is so separate. ” he said. “In my experience, it wasn’t really like that. We didn’t have social hierarchies.”.
The story of “Never Change!” doesn’t come from his own high school career, though. Reynolds said the idea sparked from watching high school movies like “Can’t Hardly Wait.” He and Schousboe—who met doing comedy in Chicago—were together working on another script and lamenting that they were too old to create a high school comedy. “That’s when the lightbulb went off,” Reynolds explained. “What if they weren’t too old after all?. What if thirtysomethings got called back to high school?”.
Originally, Reynolds said, he and Schousboe developed the concept as a TV show. Then Hulu asked that it be condensed into a film. Reynolds distilled the script down to feature length, keeping iconic genre touchstones—prom, school play, finals, and graduation—intact.
Casting became part of the film’s heart. From the beginning, Reynolds and Schousboe planned on bringing in fellow comedians. Reynolds wrote parts for Carmen Christopher and Gary Richardson, whom he met in Chicago at 18 and lived with for years. He also cast New York comedy staples including Matt Barats. Patti Harrison. Micah Sterenberg. and Jo Firestone. with whom he’s performed.
“Jo is just incredible,” Reynolds gushed. “She’s heartbreaking and funny in all her scenes, and I was really lucky she said, ‘yes’ to doing it. I would check in a lot, like, ‘Are you sure you want to do it?’ ‘Still want to it?’ We got her, which was huge.”
Reynolds also cast his longtime “Search Party” co-star John Early in a small part. The indie comedy premiered a decade ago, in 2016, on TBS, and became a hit—launching the careers of Reynolds and Early, along with Alia Shawkat, Meredith Hagner, and Cole Escola.
“I’m not surprised,” Reynolds said about the success of those castmates. “‘Search Party’ was such a difficult show tonally. You had to be funny. and then the next scene. you’re burying a body. there’s a murder. or you’re having a dramatic fight with your partner. You could see firsthand just how skilled they were as comedic actors.”.
In “Never Change!,” Reynolds plays a himbo jock named Sonny Football. He said it wasn’t subtle on purpose. “I just thought it was funny if his name was so overt and stupid,” Reynolds said. “I hope people get on board with that. We want the absurdity to come through immediately, so people can relax.”
Still, Reynolds admitted that writing for himself was harder than it sounds. “I come from an Irish Catholic family in the Midwest,” he said. “So you don’t talk about yourself. and you don’t do work on yourself. so the idea of trying to talk about yourself or write for yourself is still a work in progress for me.”.
Eventually, he said he steered toward an aspirational version of a character. “I’ll get cast because [a film or TV show] needs conflict,” he said. “My characters are so stressed. and my wheelhouse is playing stress. so [in ‘Never Change!’]. I just wanted to have a good time and be a happy-go-lucky guy. There are certainly elements of Sunny that I wish I had.”.
Even with the crew and the cast full of familiar faces. Reynolds said assembling people from different eras of his life changed the feeling on set. “To see people from different eras of your life makes it feel more comfortable on set. and you have less imposter syndrome. ” he said. “When I first moved to New York and started doing acting roles. I was terrified. and I’m less terrified now.”.
Reynolds may be known to some audiences for major work—he’s a SAG Award winner for his work on “Stranger Things. ” and he was on the show from the very first season before the franchise blew up—but his path there wasn’t instant confidence. “When I got that job, I literally had $74,” he said. “I was truly having a panic attack. and then got a phone call that was like. ‘You’re gonna be in this show. It shoots in Atlanta. You leave in a week.’ I was like. ‘What is it?’ and then I remembered that I had auditioned for it.”.
He added that watching established dramatic actors helped him find his footing. “I was working with dramatic actors like David Harbour. so getting to see his process was new to me. because I had only known comedians at that point. ” Reynolds said. “When people asked me what the show was in general. I was like. ‘I think it’s like a sci-fi thing.’ Then the show came out. and it was this massive hit. and people were like. ‘This is what you were talking about?!’ It was bananas. My life didn’t really change from it, but around me, people in the cast were changing.”.
For all the wins behind him, Reynolds still sounds exposed when he thinks about “Never Change!” reaching people. He called the idea “terrifying.” “You spend so much time working on it, and you really hope people give into it and have a good time,” he said.
On premiere day at the 2026 Tribeca Festival, Reynolds said he’ll lean on the one thing that keeps him grounded: family. “My family is always grounding,” he said with a laugh. “They bring me to reality quick.”
And in the end, that might be the clearest thread running through his whole pitch for “Never Change!”—pressure about comfort, laughter engineered on purpose, and a steady return to the people who keep him from floating too far away from himself.
The interview was originally published on June 9, 2026 at the Tribeca Festival. “Never Change!” is now available to stream on Hulu.
John Reynolds Never Change! Marty Schousboe Hulu Tribeca Festival 2026 comedy film Madison West High School Jo Firestone John Early Stranger Things SAG Award