Apple TV has released the official trailer for The Dink, a new sports comedy that turns pickleball into the most unlikely battleground for pride, family approval and one very damaged athletic ego.
Jake Johnson stars as Dusty Boyd, a former tennis prodigy whose glory days are long behind him. Now stuck coaching unruly children at his father’s suburban country club, Dusty is desperate to win the approval of Chuck, played by Ed Harris. Unfortunately for Dusty, the club’s newest obsession is pickleball — the very sport he and his father are determined to resist.
That resistance does not last. After Dusty aggravates an old tennis injury, he turns to pickleball as part of his rehab and slowly discovers that the sport he dismissed might be exactly what he needs. With help from Candace, played by Mary Steenburgen, Dusty gets pulled into a world of paddles, grudges, old rivalries and deeply unnecessary competitiveness.
The trailer understands the joke immediately: pickleball may be low-impact, social and friendly on paper, but put the wrong people near a net and suddenly it becomes emotional warfare. The Dink looks ready to treat every serve, rally and awkward country-club confrontation as if a national championship is at stake.
Ben Stiller produces and also appears in the film, adding another layer of sports-comedy DNA after Dodgeball. The cast also includes Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell, Aaron Chen and Andy Roddick, with Roddick appearing as a version of Dusty’s childhood nemesis.
For fans of feel-good sports comedies, The Dink looks like a light, sharp summer watch built around a beautifully silly premise: what if one man’s entire self-worth depended on taking pickleball seriously against his will?
The Dink premieres globally on Apple TV on July 24, 2026.
Video source: Apple TV
