Zendaya and Garland Pair for Untitled A24 Sci-Fi Set to Shoot in 2027

Zendaya has signed on to lead an untitled science-fiction feature that writer-director Alex Garland will make for A24, with production slated for 2027. The project marks the first direct pairing between the actress and the filmmaker.

The film, announced this week, keeps plot details under wraps but extends a relationship between Zendaya and the studio that handled her recent slate. Her A24-distributed dark comedy "The Drama," co-starring Robert Pattinson, grossed nearly $135 million worldwide. She also fronted HBO's "Euphoria," which concluded after three seasons earlier this year.

Garland's A24 track record

Garland's run at A24 already includes "Ex Machina," "Civil War," "Men," "Warfare" — and the upcoming "Elden Ring" video-game adaptation, whose shoot wrapped July 30 and which the studio has scheduled for March 2028. "Elden Ring" stars Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Ben Whishaw, Nick Offerman and Tom Burke.

With both a big-budget video-game picture and a prestige sci-fi (a director-driven, festival-friendly project) on his dance card, Garland is becoming A24's de facto sci-fi house director. The new film reopens a genre lane he last drove with Netflix's "Annihilation" and the FX limited series "Devs." It also sidelines him, for now, from another franchise his name is most closely tied to: the "28 Days Later" / "28 Years Later" cycle.

What does this change for "28 Years Later 3"?

Garland wrote 2002's "28 Days Later" and reunited with Danny Boyle on last year's "28 Years Later" and its fast-follow sequel "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple." Speaking at the London Film Festival, Boyle said Garland had delivered a "fantastic script" for a third film — but noted the director was tied up with "Elden Ring."

"So it's on the back burner at the moment," Boyle said.

Garland's 2027 A24 commitment now pushes any third "28 Years Later" further down the queue. The gap between the original "28 Days Later" and last year's sequel already tested fans' patience at 23 years. A sci-fi shoot starting in 2027 means that back burner could stay warm through 2028 at the earliest.

How does this fit Zendaya's 2027 calendar?

The production slots cleanly around a packed 2026. Zendaya appeared this year in two of the year's record-breaking movies: "The Odyssey" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Three" arrives Dec. 16 to close her 2026 run — and to deliver her third trip to the Dune universe.

Garland's film gives her a marquee auteur credit for the year that follows, a prestige counterweight to the franchise work she has stacked behind her. For A24, that means two sci-fi releases from the same writer-director, anchored by the same lead actress, across consecutive release windows.

For a label built on singular bets, that's deliberate consolidation rather than coincidence. The studio isn't hedging across multiple directors; it's concentrating its speculative-fiction pipeline behind one filmmaking voice and one lead face.