Forget ‘Magic Mike’: Chad Michael Murray Strips Down For Netflix Christmas Movie

Christina Aguilera and Cher had the Golden Globe-nominated Burlesque. Channing Tatum made a trilogy out of Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike. Now, early-aughts heartthrob Chad Michael Murray is boldly going where no actor has before—headlining a holiday-themed movie about a shirtless all-male dance revue.

Netflix has unveiled the first look at The Merry Gentlemen, which stars Murray—best known for The CW’s One Tree Hill and the film A Cinderella Story—as a “kind, confident, and slightly sarcastic” contractor who strips down in the name of seasonal tidings, as the actor told Tudum. The film’s other main character, Ashley (played by Britt Robertson of Girlboss and The Longest Ride) stages the all-male dance show to save the Rhythm Room, her parents’ small-town performing arts venue.

Murray, who appeared alongside Brooke Shields in last year’s Netflix comedy Mother of the Bride and recently reprised his role as Lindsay Lohan’s love interest in Freaky Friday 2, has starred in his fair share of Christmas movies, including Hallmark’s Write Before Christmas and Lifetime’s Toying With the Holidays. But a more risqué concept was new territory for Murray. “It’s a fine line to thread a Christmas movie and strippers to make it work, right?” he told People. “It’s not the first thing that comes to your mind when you think Christmas. So for us, it was really making sure that the tone’s right,” adding that the film will get viewers “a little hot and bothered under the collar.”

The movie is directed by made-for-TV (or streaming) rom-com regular Peter Sullivan and written by Full House alum Marla Sokoloff, who also plays a supporting role in the film. Starring alongside her, Robertson, and Murray are more familiar faces for Millennials, like Beth Broderick of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Maxwell Caulfield of the so-bad-it’s-good Grease 2.

The Merry Gentlemen will stream as part of Netflix’s previously-announced holiday slate, which includes Our Little Secret starring Lohan and Hot Frosty, fronted by fellow Mean Girls star Lacey Chabert. The Chippendales-esque movie (be warned, certain cast members of Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives) debuts on Nov. 20.