An untitled sci-fi film written and directed by Alex Garland for A24 has cast Zendaya to star. Plot details remain under wraps, with production expected to begin sometime in 2027.
The project marks Zendaya’s third collaboration with A24, following her role on Euphoria and this year’s The Drama. Her 2026 has been defined by an unusual run of box office milestones across multiple studios. Spider-Man: Brand New Day became the highest-grossing domestic release in box office history, unadjusted for inflation, surpassing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while also crossing $2.5 billion worldwide. She also starred in The Odyssey, which became Universal’s highest-grossing release ever, and earned an Emmy nomination for her performance as Rue in Euphoria‘s third and final season. She’s set to reprise her role as Chani in Dune: Part Three, the conclusion of Denis Villeneuve’s trilogy, arriving in theaters December 18. She’s also previously been attached to play Ronnie Spector in Barry Jenkins’ Be My Baby for A24, and will voice a role in DreamWorks’ Shrek 5 next summer.
For Garland, the project marks his fifth collaboration with A24, a relationship dating back to his Oscar-nominated directorial debut, Ex Machina, and continuing through Men, Civil War, and Warfare, which he co-directed with former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza. He’s currently in post-production on Elden Ring, A24’s big-budget adaptation of the FromSoftware video game, starring Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny, and Ben Whishaw, slated for a March 2028 release. Outside his A24 work, Garland wrote both 28 Years Later films for Sony, though director Danny Boyle recently said a planned third installment remains on hold, partly due to Garland’s packed schedule.
With Garland juggling this new project alongside the still-unresolved status of a third 28 Years Later film, and Zendaya’s calendar already stacked through Dune‘s December release, the real question is how both filmmakers manage to fit this new collaboration into schedules that are already unusually full.