Zendaya has found her next project — and it reunites two of the most bankable names in contemporary science fiction. A24 announced on Thursday 15 October 2026 that the 30-year-old star will lead a new untitled sci-fi feature written and directed by Alex Garland, with production planned to begin in 2027.
The film marks the fifth collaboration between Garland and A24, one of the most consistent director-studio partnerships of the past decade. Plot details are being kept under wraps; all that has been disclosed is the casting and the production window.
Garland's fifth dance with A24
Few working directors have a relationship with a studio as productive as Garland's with A24. The partnership began with his directorial debut, the artificial-intelligence thriller Ex Machina (2014), which went on to win the Academy Award for best visual effects. It continued with the folk-horror Men (2022), the political thriller Civil War (2024) — which set A24 box-office records — and Warfare (2025), co-directed with former US Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza.
Garland's science-fiction pedigree extends beyond A24. His directing work hovers around speculative themes, from the cosmic horror of Annihilation (2018) to his early screenplays for Danny Boyle, including the outer-space thriller Sunshine (2007). He also wrote both of Sony's 28 Years Later films, released in 2025 and 2026.
The untitled project will be his second consecutive film currently in motion: Garland is in post-production on Elden Ring, his ambitious adaptation of FromSoftware's beloved fantasy video game and A24's most expensive in-house production to date, set for release on 3 March 2028. That film stars Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, Tom Burke, Ruby Cruz and Garland regular Sonoya Mizuno.
Zendaya's billion-dollar year
The timing of the announcement is a sign of just how much leverage Zendaya currently holds. Her 2026 has been extraordinary even by Hollywood standards. She appeared in two of the year's biggest films: Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which took $1.78 billion worldwide to become the highest-grossing Universal film in history, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which made $2.51 billion to rank as the No. 1 movie of the year. Add A24's sleeper hit The Drama, with roughly $135 million worldwide, and her three films together grossed nearly $4.5 billion.
Television has been no less demanding: the final season of HBO's Euphoria wrapped earlier this year, closing out the role that won her the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for each of the show's first two seasons. And the year is not over — Dune: Part Three arrives on 18 December 2026, and she lends her voice to Felicia in next summer's Shrek 5.
For A24, casting Zendaya is a statement of ambition. The studio has built its reputation on auteur-driven originals, and pairing one of the most distinctive sci-fi directors working today with the year's biggest box-office star signals an intent to compete at a scale A24 has rarely attempted.
Why this pairing matters
Garland's science fiction is cerebral, unsettling and morally ambiguous — interested less in spectacle than in what technology reveals about its users. Zendaya's screen persona, by contrast, is grounded and emotionally precise, carrying an intelligence that anchors even the biggest franchises. On paper, the combination is intriguing: a director who destabilises his characters against a star whose presence stabilises any scene she enters.
There is also a strategic logic. Original science fiction has become a difficult sell at the box office, squeezed between franchise juggernauts and streaming. A24's model — mid-budget, director-led, prestige-marketed — may be the best remaining route for original sci-fi on the big screen, and Zendaya's involvement gives the project a commercial foundation that most original genre films lack.
