Robert Pattinson takes on the voice of Chris Hansen in A24’s upcoming Primetime, a 2006-set thriller built around To Catch a Predator’s infamously staged sting. The film is slated for theaters in September 2026, with a supporting cast including Merritt Wever,
Robert Pattinson’s voice lands like a telltale echo—uncanny, familiar, and hard to ignore. In A24’s upcoming Primetime, the actor delivers an impersonation of Chris Hansen so precise that viewers who remember Hansen’s broadcasts can’t help but stop and listen again.
The trailer, released in May 2026, doesn’t treat that resemblance as a throwaway detail. The film’s official logline sets the tone in 2006. when “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history. The poster leans into the same language with a tagline: “Are you ready to make television history?”.
In the teaser. Pattinson speaks directly in Hansen’s recognizable cadence. laying out a set of lines that feel built for the moment they’re delivered. “What would have happened if I wasn’t here?. You see how this looks, right?. At the end of the day, a man must be held accountable for the decisions that he makes. Do you agree?. Do you watch television?. Well, there’s something you should know. I’m Chris Hansen, with Dateline NBC. And you’re about to be a part of television history.”.
At the heart of Primetime is the real-life figure behind that on-camera confrontation. Chris Hansen is the TV presenter. journalist. correspondent. and YouTube personality known for his work with Dateline NBC—most famously through the reality program To Catch a Predator. That show ran from 2004 to 2007. staging hidden-camera confrontations with adult men who came to a home believing they were about to meet a minor. The sting operations. filmed with hidden cameras. would typically end in arrests and involved adults impersonating underage people from online chatrooms.
After To Catch a Predator concluded, Hansen continued working in true-crime television. He moved on to Investigation Discovery’s Killer Instinct, a short-lived series that documented homicide cases.
Now, Hansen’s presence is also tied to ongoing media of a different kind. He started his own podcast, “Predators I’ve Caught,” in 2020, where he discusses past true crime and predator investigations he conducted.
Primetime is scheduled to hit theaters sometime in September 2026, though the studio has not announced an exact release date yet. Joining Pattinson, the cast includes Skyler Gisondo, Merritt Wever, Phoebe Bridgers, Matthew Maher, Anna Faris, Sean Bridgers, and Bokeem Woodbine in supporting roles.
The project invites a specific kind of attention because it’s built on an image that already sits in the public mind—Hansen’s voice. Hansen’s role. and the machinery of those hidden-camera stings that ran on Dateline NBC from 2004 to 2007. In Primetime. that familiar framework becomes the staging ground for a new story as 2006’s “television history” moves toward theaters in 2026.
Robert Pattinson Chris Hansen Primetime A24 To Catch a Predator Dateline NBC Investigation Discovery Killer Instinct Predators I’ve Caught Skyler Gisondo Merritt Wever Anna Faris Bokeem Woodbine
So basically it’s Chris Hansen in a movie? I feel like that’s gonna be weird as hell.
Wait I thought Pattinson was just doing a voice? Like that’s supposed to be the whole thing? The tagline “television history” sounds like they’re trying to cash in on the old show.
Not gonna lie, I’m kinda mad because everyone knows what “To Catch a Predator” was for and they’re turning it into A24 thriller entertainment… like where’s the line? Also, if it’s set in 2006 shouldn’t Hansen be older or like, not in voice form? I don’t get it.
A24 making a movie about that Dateline stuff again in September 2026… cool cool. I saw the trailer clips and it literally sounds like him, like the cadence is spot on. But isn’t this just gonna confuse people who never watched it? Also “are you ready to make television history” like huh… we’ve already seen how that works. Holding someone accountable, sure, but I bet half the comments online will just be obsessed with Pattinson’s voice instead.