A24 has revealed Adam Wingard’s first project since his monsterverse movies, marking a return to the corner of the industry where he first made a name for himself.
Following his run with Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Wingard is back in the indie space, making a deliberate shift into action horror thrillers with a mix of slasher visuals. A24 released a trailer for the film Onslaught on June 2nd to wide appeal of viewers.
Onslaught follows Celeste, a former Army sniper living quietly in a desert trailer park with her young daughter. Her peace is shattered when a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers escape from a nearby military base and begin terrorising the area.
The trailer has already sparked comparisons to a military slasher, and it is easy to see why. From the slash mark cutting through the title on the poster to the looming soldier in the background, the marketing leans heavily into classic slasher imagery. Action horror films of this kind sit in the tradition of survival horror. In such movies, ordinary people with extraordinary skills are pitted against a threat that does not reason, only hunts.
Wingard brings Simon Barrett along for the writing, continuing their partnership from A Horrible Way to Die alongside their Monsterverse years and now back into indie. He also brought in Adria Arjona, who shares more than a passing resemblance to his Monsterverse cast member Eiza González.
The film is a notable step for Arjona herself who has built her career toward moments like this. She went from early roles in True Detective and Six, to major productions including Andor and Richard Linklater’s Hit Man in 2023. However, her involvement in all these films were supporting roles. Wingard’s upcoming film will be Arjona’s first time carrying a feature as the lead cast and an executive producer.
Arjona is not carrying the thrill alone. The cast assembled around her include Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens. MMA champion Alex Pereira is playing a genetically engineered super soldier. He is described by the trailer as “a human equivalent of a heat-seeking missile,” alongside Michael Biehn.
From the trailer alone, Adria Arjona’s character looks more than capable of handling herself. But taking down an unhinged super soldier will require far more than a shotgun and sheer confidence. With glimpses of brutal military training and her effortless handling of a chainsaw, she may have the skills needed to stop the killing machine. Audiences will find out when the film arrives on September 4, 2026.
A24’s upcoming slate suggests the studio is continuing to expand beyond the boundaries it once occupied. Leading that push is The Death of Robin Hood, directed by Michael Sarnoski and starring Hugh Jackman, which arrives on June 19 with a gritty, historically grounded take on the legendary outlaw that Sarnoski has described as indie filmmaking at heart, regardless of its scale.
The studio’s ambitions stretch well beyond medieval drama. Olivia Wilde’s The Invite arrives on June 26 after generating strong buzz at Sundance, while Robert Pattinson stars as Chris Hansen in Primetime this September, and Alex Garland is currently developing a live-action Elden Ring adaptation for IMAX, scheduled for March 2028, a project that highlights just how far A24 is willing to push into new territory.
Independent cinema has always thrived by taking creative risks, and A24’s growing lineup reflects that same spirit on a larger scale. From historical drama and crime thrillers to dark fantasy epics, the studio is not abandoning its identity, it is broadening it, embracing stories and genres that once sat outside its traditional comfort zone.
