Scarlett Johansson, Hollywood's busiest superstar, signs on for the horror auteur's most anticipated project yet.
Leave it to Ari Aster to make the impossible happen. The visionary filmmaker behind Hereditary and Midsommar has officially landed one of the most in-demand actresses on the planet for his next project, and honestly, we’re not surprised she said yes.
According to reports, Aster is set to direct Scapegoat, a new film he wrote himself, with Scarlett Johansson attached to star. The film will once again be released through A24, the beloved indie powerhouse that has backed every one of Aster’s features. Aster and his longtime producing partner Lars Knudsen will produce through their Square Peg banner. As for what Scapegoat is actually about? Your guess is as good as ours. Aster, true to form, is keeping every single plot detail locked in a vault somewhere in the Hollywood hills.
How Ari Aster Landed Scarlett Johansson for His Most Secretive Film Yet
What makes this casting such a jaw-dropper is the sheer feat of logistics it required. Johansson, the Oscar-nominated actress who is arguably the most bankable star working today, already had one of the most packed shooting schedules in the industry heading into 2026. She’s set to appear in the next Exorcist installment over at Universal, will shoot the next Batman sequel opposite Robert Pattinson later this summer, and somehow also has a Jurassic World Rebirth sequel to squeeze in. The woman is essentially a one-person film festival.
After spending the end of last year writing, Scapegoat became his original script and his top choice to star in the film was Johansson.
And yet, sources say that the moment Johansson read Aster’s script for Scapegoat, she was completely and utterly sold. No arm-twisting required. Producers quickly adapted to her packed schedule, plotting a shoot for later this year to make it all work. When the material is this good and the filmmaker this singular, you find a way. That’s just how it goes with Aster’s scripts, which have a long-standing reputation for stopping the town dead in its tracks. Since Hereditary rattled audiences back in 2018, his original work has been treated like must-read material the moment it hits the circuit.
Johansson is coming off a year that would exhaust a lesser star. Her summer blockbuster Jurassic World Rebirth roared into theaters and clawed its way to a massive $868 million worldwide, cementing her status as a true force at the global box office and setting up a sequel that is already in development. Before Scapegoat shoots, audiences will also get to see her in Paper Tiger, the new James Gray film co-starring Miles Teller and Adam Driver, which is set to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
As for Aster, Scapegoat arrives after his sharp, darkly comic satire Eddington premiered at Cannes last year to considerable buzz. The filmmaker has clearly been selective about what comes next, spending the final stretch of 2025 writing before landing on this script as his definitive choice. Given that his entire filmography has been defined by originality, dread, and an almost perverse commitment to going places other directors wouldn’t dare, expectations for Scapegoat are already through the roof.
Scarlett Johansson. Ari Aster. A24. Consider us very, very scared and completely unable to wait.
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