Jacob Elordi in Talks for Ari Aster’s ‘Scapegoat’

Jacob Elordi is closing in on his next big swing. According to Deadline’s exclusive report, the Oscar-nominated star of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is in talks to join Ari Aster’s upcoming A24 film ‘Scapegoat’ — a project that already has Scarlett Johansson attached to star. It would be Elordi’s first major role since his awards-season breakthrough, and pairing him with both Aster and Johansson is about as strong a landing spot as an actor could ask for after a year spent proving he can disappear into a role.

What We Know About ‘Scapegoat’

Aster wrote the script himself and is directing, with production under his and Lars Knudsen’s Square Peg banner in partnership with A24 — the same team behind Hereditary, Midsommar and last year’s Eddington. Johansson has been attached since May, with reports at the time saying she was so taken with the screenplay that producers were willing to commit to filming later this year to fit her schedule.

Plot details remain officially under wraps, which is standard operating procedure for Aster — his films tend to reveal their real shape only after the trap has already closed. An unconfirmed report that circulated over the summer suggested the story follows a surgeon (Johansson) whose patient dies during an operation, with the fallout landing on her character and the main antagonists coming from the deceased’s family — reportedly inspired by a certain influencer-turned-boxer and his wrestler sibling. Take all of that with the appropriate amount of salt; Aster’s movies rarely play out the way early rumors describe them. What is confirmed: it is an original Aster script, it is A24, and the cast is suddenly very serious.

Elordi’s Momentum

Elordi’s career arc has been one of the most interesting in Hollywood over the past few years. He became a household name on Euphoria, where his coiled, menacing performance as Nate Jacobs made him one of the most talked-about young actors on television. He followed it with a run of high-profile film roles — the beautiful, dangerous aristocrat in Saltburn, the title role in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla — before completely transforming himself for del Toro’s Frankenstein.

That performance, playing the Creature under layers of prosthetics, earned him his first Oscar nomination. The film itself collected nine nominations overall, and Elordi picked up a Critics Choice win along the way. The role was the kind of unglamorous, physically demanding swing that deliberately distanced him from his earlier heartthrob image — and it worked. After the awards gauntlet, Deadline notes, Elordi took a much-needed break before locking onto his next project. ‘Scapegoat’ would be the comeback.

From Rom-Coms to the Creature

It is worth remembering how far Elordi has traveled to get here. His first big exposure came in the Netflix rom-com The Kissing Booth, a franchise that made him a teen heartthrob whether he wanted the label or not. That era gave him the visibility, but it also handed him a mountain to climb: proving he was more than a handsome lead in a streaming popcorn movie. Euphoria was the first real step — a gritty, uncomfortable HBO drama where his character was the antagonist, not the love interest. Saltburn and Priscilla kept pushing in the same direction, choosing directors and material that demanded more than charm.

Frankenstein completed the transformation. Under Mike Hill’s extraordinary prosthetics — 42 separate appliances applied over ten-hour sessions — Elordi became barely recognizable, and the gamble paid off with his first Oscar nomination and a Critics Choice win. Choosing an Aster film as the follow-up is the logical next move in that pattern: more risk, more craft, less comfort.

Why This Pairing Is Interesting

Johansson and Elordi is not an obvious on-paper combo, and that is exactly why it is worth paying attention to. Aster is not a director who casts for chemistry alone; he casts for tension. Putting a performer like Elordi, who specializes in controlled menace, opposite an actress with Johansson’s range and star power sets up a dynamic that could go anywhere.

Johansson’s schedule is packed. She recently wrapped production on Mike Flanagan’s new Exorcist movie, and she is set to appear in The Batman Part 2 opposite Sebastian Stan. But ‘Scapegoat’ is clearly a priority — she reportedly pushed hard to make the film happen after reading the script, which is why the producers aligned the shoot around her calendar. Her track record includes Oscar nominations for Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit, plus the kind of commercial gravity that guarantees an A24 project gets attention beyond the festival circuit.

Aster’s Streak

Few working directors have a batting average like Ari Aster’s. Hereditary announced him in 2018 as a major new voice in horror; Midsommar proved it was no fluke. He went bigger and stranger with Beau Is Afraid, then delivered the pandemic-era western thriller Eddington last year with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal — a Cannes premiere that ended in a standing ovation. Every Aster film now arrives as an event, and ‘Scapegoat’ carries the full weight of that track record, amplified by A24’s awards machinery.

What makes this project even more intriguing is how Aster keeps working with actors who want to be challenged. Phoenix came back for Beau Is Afraid after Hereditary-adjacent territory; now Johansson and potentially Elordi are signing up for whatever is hiding inside that screenplay. For an audience that has watched Aster’s reputation grow from cult favorite to genuine mainstream draw, the question is no longer whether his next film will be interesting — it is how strange it will be allowed to get.

What It Means

For movie fans, ‘Scapegoat’ is shaping up as one of the most anticipated indies in development: a writer-director at the top of his game, an A-list lead who has been chasing the project since May, and a co-star arriving fresh off an Oscar campaign. If Elordi signs, the film instantly becomes a fixture of every “most anticipated” list through its release.

Reports suggest production could begin before the end of the year, which would point toward a late 2027 or 2028 release window. Nothing is locked in until the deal closes — Elordi is circling, not signed — but every piece is in place. An original Aster script. A24 backing. Two stars at very different points in their careers, both at the top of their game. Watch this one closely; it is exactly the kind of project that dominates the conversation from first announcement to premiere night.