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Timothée Chalamet is Edgar Scissorhands in Cadillac's Super Bowl ad

The gig game ad stars Chalamet and Winona Ryder -- and Cadillac's upcoming Lyriq electric SUV.

Sean Szymkowski
It all started with Gran Turismo. From those early PlayStation days, Sean was drawn to anything with four wheels. Prior to joining the Roadshow team, he was a freelance contributor for Motor Authority, The Car Connection and Green Car Reports. As for what's in the garage, Sean owns a 2016 Chevrolet SS, and yes, it has Holden badges.
Sean Szymkowski
2 min read

Cadillac wants to sharpen the public's view of the brand, and specifically, wants the Super Bowl audience to know it has some seriously advanced technology. That's the overarching theme for the brand's Super Bowl 55 commercial, which spoofs Tim Burton's classic 1990 film Edward Scissorhands.

The ad, which is set to air during Super Bowl LV, features Timothée Chalamet as Edward's son, Edgar, and Winona Ryder reprises her role as Edward's love interest in the original film, Kim Boggs. As we see Edgar suffer the hardships of scissors-as-hands living, Boggs takes notice when he finds joy in driving via a virtual reality headset.

That leads to one heck of a gift from his mother: a Cadillac Lyriq equipped with Super Cruise, the company's hands-free highway driving-assist technology. It's a little odd that Edgar likes driving, so he's given a car that enables hands-free cruising. I suppose that's a pretty small problem compared to, you know, having long, sharp blades for fingers. While it's best to take Super Bowl ads at face value and see them as living in their own timeline, there's also something just a little strange in parodying a rather dark film that ends with Kim supposedly never seeing Edward ever again. I digress.

"It's rare when a work you're proud of continues to live on and evolve with the times, even after 30 years," said Burton, director of Edward Scissorhands, in a statement. "I'm glad to see Edgar coping with the new world! I hope both fans and those being introduced to Edward Scissorhands for the first time enjoy it."

On its own, the Scissorhands spoof gets Cadillac's point across: Super Cruise makes driving easier, even if you're a sort of unfinished humanoid drowning in awkwardness.

Read moreSee all the Super Bowl 2021 ads and All the Super Bowl 2021 car ads

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