Rita Moreno Plays a Devious Teacher Who Gets Framed by Her Students in “The Prank” Trailer (Exclusive)

Rita Moreno's "deliciously devilish performance is not to be missed," says director Maureen Bharoocha

Rita Moreno has never had a role quite like this.

The Prank casts the award-winning legend as “a stern, mean and cruel physics teacher" named Mrs. Wheeler who is targeted by two students planning to “ruin her life and frame her for murder,” per a synopsis.

PEOPLE has the exclusive first trailer of the film, from director Maureen Bharoocha and writers Rebecca Flinn-White and Zak White.

"I'm excited for fans to see this unexpected performance from Rita Moreno in this dark comedy," says Bharoocha. "The Prank is filled with thrills and laughs, but Rita's deliciously devilish performance is not to be missed."

"Her talent and energy is unparalleled," the director adds, "and it's in an understatement to say working with the legendary EGOT winner was a dream come true.”

Related: Rita Moreno on Struggling with Loneliness in Her 90s: 'I Really Didn't Understand What Was Happening' (Exclusive)

Playing the pranksters are Connor Kalopsis (of Outmatched) as Ben and Ramona Young (Never Have I Ever) as Tanner. Rounding out the cast are Moreno, Keith David, Kate Flannery and Meredith Salenger.

According to The Prank’s synopsis, “Ben is your typical high-school overachiever. He’s organized, careful, goal-oriented and extremely dedicated to school. His best friend, Tanner, couldn’t be more opposite. She is a lackadaisical, messy slacker, who lives in the moment. They aren’t popular, but they don’t seem to care that much because they have each other.”

Moreno, 92, plays “the hardest, coldest, strictest faculty member” at their school. “She fails Ben’s entire class unless a student who cheated comes forward. When no one does, Tanner and Ben hatch a plan to ruin her life and frame her for murder on social media.”

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The trailer includes glimpses of the West Side Story Oscar winner at her most devious, nonchalantly threatening to fail her students and maintaining innocence as rumors of her murderousness spread.

Ben and Tanner, meanwhile, seem to realize how out of hand their practical joke becomes.

Following The Prank’s March 2022 premiere at Austin, Texas’ South by Southwest — where it earned rave reviews for Moreno’s performance — the movie won two awards at the 2023 California Women's Film Festival.

In an interview with PEOPLE in November, Moreno shared that these days she’s “happy to be me.”

“I'm thinking of possibly doing two birthday parties… I may have to have three,” said the EGOT winner of turning 92. She was later seen celebrating the big day Dec. 11 with friends and family by conducting them in a rousing live rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.”

Related: Rita Moreno Celebrates Her 92nd Birthday by Conducting Her Singing Friends

Her age, she told PEOPLE, “makes me very maddening in many ways. I've gotten fussier and more insistent that I'm right, sometimes I am, and most times I'm not, that kind of stuff.”

Last year, Moreno starred in 80 for Brady, Fast X and Family Switch, and made appearances on Lopez vs. Lopez and Princess Power.

The Prank is in select theaters March 15.

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