Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Santa Claus in First Teaser for Holiday Action Movie ‘The Man with the Bag’

The action comedy The Man with the Bag premieres December 2, 2026, on Prime Video. The film’s main event is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to the big screen: the actor takes on the role of Santa Claus, who has to team up with the criminal underworld to save the holiday.

In the story, the wizard’s famous sack of presents is stolen. As People reports, the daring theft is the work of a bitter renegade elf played by Awkwafina. Time is running out before Christmas, and Santa is forced to take extreme measures — he turns to a professional thief named Vance (Reacher star Alan Ritchson) for help, after first finding him on his own “naughty list.”

A Family Heist for Christmas

Vance assembles a crew of criminals with specialized skills, while elves and reindeer provide firepower and logistics support. Director Adam Shankman (known for the musical Hairspray and the fairy tale Disenchanted) turns the classic Christmas story into a fast-paced heist film.

Notably, despite the action genre and criminal premise, the film kept a soft family-friendly PG rating, avoiding the bloody scenes of the recent Violent Night. The movie runs 111 minutes.

First trailer for ‘THE MAN WITH THE BAG’, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Santa.

The film follows Santa Claus as he enlists the help of a petty criminal after his sack of presents is stolen.

Releasing December 2 on Prime Video. pic.twitter.com/lWLdAGIwll

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 30, 2026

The Return of the Austrian Oak

In the released teaser, the filmmakers, as expected, play on Schwarzenegger’s legendary line “I’m back!” For the 79-year-old actor, the project is indeed a major comeback: he hasn’t appeared in a feature film since Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019, limiting himself to the lead role in the spy series FUBAR. At the same time, Arnold returns to Christmas themes exactly three decades after the cult family comedy Jingle All the Way in 1996.

Supporting roles in the film go to Ken Jeong, Jane Krakowski, Lisa Koshy and Kyle Mooney. As Amazon reports, the film will skip theaters and go straight to digital, exclusively for Prime Video subscribers worldwide.