Barbarian (watch it HERE) writer/director Zach Cregger has assembled a strong cast for his mysterious horror project called Weapons, including Julia Garner (Ozark), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo), Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange), Amy Madigan (Antlers), Austin Abrams (Euphoria), June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie), and Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives)… and we’re going to have the chance to see that cast face the horrors Cregger has conjured up when Weapons reaches theatres on August 8th. But that’s not the first cast this movie had. Back in May of 2023, it was announced that Pedro Pascal (The Fantastic Four: First Steps) would be starring in the film alongside Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World). Then, the Screen Actors Guild strike hit in July and lasted until November, and when it ended, scheduling issues forced Cregger to recast the movie.
Cregger told Entertainment Weekly, “I had a whole different cast for this movie. And then we had the strike, and then Pedro Pascal’s schedule threw us into turmoil. I had to recast the entire movie. This is what happens, right? The strikes delayed us, and then when you delay, people’s schedules get conflicts, and then you’re back at square one. I bear no ill will towards anybody. We just kept getting delayed and delayed. It’s like a domino effect. So I had to start over again.“
Not only did Weapons lose Pascal and Reinsve, but also Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway) and Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga). One of the only actors who was cast before the SAG strike and remained attached to the film when production began in May of 2024 was Austin Abrams (Wolfs), who plays James, a homeless man hooked on drugs. Cregger said, “He hung tough with me. That’s my dude right there.” Which explains why Abrams has already been cast in the Resident Evil movie Cregger will be making. Abrams told Entertainment Weekly, “I’d seen Barbarian with a friend. I remember when it cut to Justin Long in the car, I just knew I loved whoever made that movie. I was able to get in contact with Zach, and then it turned out he was making something. He thought I was a good fit for it, potentially…. I loved the part and I didn’t wanna let it go. So I just really held on ’cause I really wanted to do it.” Another actor who stayed with the project through the strike was June Diane Raphael.
Most details about Weapons are shrouded in mystery. It has been said that it’s “an interrelated, multistory horror epic” that’s tonally in the vein of Magnolia, and the story revolves around the disappearance of elementary school kids in a small town. Here’s the official synopsis: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Garner’s character is Justine Gandy, “a teacher at Maybrook Elementary who shows up to work one morning to find her entire class — except one student — is missing. Security footage taken from neighboring homes shows the absent kids fleeing into the darkness in the dead of night, all running with their arms outstretched in the same rigid formation.” Brolin’s character is Archer Graff, “the father of one of the missing, who finds it suspicious that only children from Justine’s class disappeared.” Ehrenreich “sports a mustache as a local police officer with a very complicated relationship to Mrs. Gandy.”
Cregger produced the film with Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures. At one point, Pedro Pascal of The Last of Us was set to star in the film with and Renate Reinsve of The Worst Person in the World. Pascal had to leave the project so he could star in the Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot of Fantastic Four (which Garner also has a role in) instead, and it appears that Reinsve followed him out the door.
Cregger, who wrote the script without an outline and let the story evolve as he went, previously told Entertainment Weekly that the mystery of the missing children “is going to propel you through at least half of the movie, but that is not the movie. The movie will fork and change and reinvent and go in new places. It doesn’t abandon that question, believe me, but that’s not the whole movie at all. By the midpoint, we’ve moved on to way crazier sh*t than that.“
What do you think of the Weapons cast changing from Pedro Pascal, Renate Reinsve, Brian Tyree Henry, and Tom Burke to Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Benedict Wong, and Alden Ehrenreich? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Entertainment Weekly
