Start with the numbers. The Odyssey has passed $1.7 billion worldwide. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has done over $2.5B. Zendaya has two of the year’s biggest films behind her, and Deadline reported on October 15 that her next move is a sci-fi picture for A24, written and directed by Alex Garland.
The bottom line: nobody outside the project knows much yet. The film has no title. Deadline said the story is being held back, and no other cast has been named. Shooting is expected next year. ComingSoon.net, citing the same timeline, said filming is reportedly set for 2027.
A studio and a director with history
This is not a first date. A24 has worked with Garland since his Oscar-nominated breakout Ex Machina, and the list since then includes Warfare, Civil War and Men. His next release for the studio is the big-budget adaptation of the video game Elden Ring, dated for March 3, 2028, with Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny and Ben Whishaw in the cast. Away from A24, Garland recently wrote and produced 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple for Sony Pictures.
His science fiction credentials are solid. He wrote and directed both Ex Machina and Annihilation, and he created the television series Devs.
Zendaya and A24
For Zendaya, the studio is familiar ground. A24 produced Euphoria, the HBO series that earned her multiple Emmys and a Golden Globe. More recently she starred opposite Robert Pattinson in The Drama, a darkly comedic rom-com from director Kristoffer Borgli, which took in a worldwide gross of over $134 million. She is also attached to play singer Ronnie Spector in Be My Baby, an A24 film from Barry Jenkins, though The A.V. Club noted that there has been little news on that project in a while.
Science fiction is the other thread. She plays Chani in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films and returns for the finale, Dune: Part Three, out December 18. The A.V. Club, which first pointed to The Hollywood Reporter on the 2027 shoot, observed that Garland’s film would keep her in the genre after she leaves Arrakis.
What else is on her slate
Zendaya is also set to voice Shrek’s daughter, Felicia, in Shrek 5. Add that to Dune: Part Three and the Garland shoot, and the calendar stays full through the end of next year.
On the business side, Deadline lists her representation as CAA, Monster Talent Management and Granderson Des Rochers. Garland is with WME and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
The figure that matters for investors in the genre is the one already on the board: a trilogy finale due in December, and a lead who has just helped two films clear $1.7 billion and $2.5B. A24 is betting that pairing her with a director it has backed since Ex Machina turns that pull into something new, on a film nobody has seen a script for yet.
Sources
- Zendaya To Star In Alex Garland's New Sci-Fi Film At A24
- Zendaya Returns to Sci-Fi After Dune With New Alex Garland Movie (ComingSoon.net via Yahoo)
- After she's done with Dune, Zendaya will team with Alex Garland for more sci-fi (The A.V. Club)
