July // 2026
From Budapest to Derb Omar — Where Matchbox: The Movie was filmed
Matchbox: The Movie
The Chain Bridge in Budapest was closed on February 9, 2025, while a stuntman hung from a helicopter above the Danube. Two weeks later, John Cena was posting Instagram videos from the streets of Casablanca. Two months after that, high-speed explosions were detonating on a sealed section of Slovakia's D1 motorway. Matchbox: The Movie — the Apple TV+ action comedy based on Mattel's toy car franchise, filmed across four countries in the first half of 2025.
The film follows a group of childhood friends whose reunion goes catastrophically sideways when one of them — Sean, an undercover CIA agent played by Cena — pulls them into a life-threatening international mission. The cast around Cena includes Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Teyonah Parris, Arturo Castro, Danai Gurira, Corey Stoll, Bill Camp, Golshifteh Farahani and Randeep Hooda.
Budapest, Hungary
Principal photography commenced in January 2025 in Budapest, with the Hungarian capital serving as the production's European base through February. On February 9, the Chain Bridge — the iconic suspension bridge spanning the Danube between Buda and Pest — was closed to traffic for filming, with John Cena on set and entertaining crowds that had gathered along the embankments to watch.
The Chain Bridge sequence was the production's most spectacular Budapest moment. A helicopter hovered low over the Chain Bridge, with a stunt performer dramatically hanging onto the helicopter's landing skids. The breathtaking action drew crowds along the embankments, where many stopped to watch and capture the scene. Additionally, major houseboats had to temporarily move from the embankment area to accommodate the shoot.
The production also filmed interior shots at the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.
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Casablanca, Gara Medouar and the Moroccan Desert
The schedule progressed to Morocco in March 2025, where scenes were captured across a remarkable range of environments — from urban density to geological drama to open Saharan sand.
In Casablanca, the production filmed specifically in Derb Omar — a densely commercial district in the heart of the city's medina.
Gara Medouar — also known as Jebel Mudawwar or the "round mountain" — is a horseshoe-shaped geological formation in the Errachidia Province of southeastern Morocco. It has been used as a filming location since The Mummy in 1999 — Spectre used it in 2015 as the headquarters of the Bond villain — and Matchbox now joins a significant list. Confirmed via sceen-it.com as a Matchbox: The Movie filming location, its desert road and rocky terrain are tagged under the production's Moroccan chapter.
Erfoud and Merzouga extend the desert chapter further south. Merzouga is the gateway to Erg Chebbi — the great sand dune field of southeastern Morocco, its rolling dunes and vast horizons providing landscape sequences.
Slovakia and Los Angeles
The production moved to the Žilina region in Slovakia in early April 2025 to film high-speed action on sections of the D1 and D3 highways, including the Hričovské Podhradie–Lietavská Lúčka stretch and the Žilina and Ovčiarsko tunnels. A closed section of Slovakia's D1 motorway outside the northern city of Žilina hosted the high-speed stunts and dramatic explosions.
After wrapping in Slovakia, the production concluded in Los Angeles, where the film's American scenes were completed. The city's studio infrastructure and experienced stunt and VFX crews gave the production a controlled environment to finish what four countries had started.
Matchbox: The Movie premieres on Apple TV+ on October 9, 2026.
SOURCE
Wikipedia // Prague Reporter // IMDb// Sceen-it.com
CREDITS
© Mattel Studios, Skydance Media
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