Zach Cregger is staying incredibly busy since his surprise horror hit Barbarian arrived in theaters last year. The filmmaker signed a deal with Warner Bros. and New Line, keeping him in the business of studio genre films for several years to come. One of the projects on his to-do list is a sci-fi flick called Companion, which is currently quite mysterious. But the mystery has unraveled a bit, as the film has cast its first major star in the form of Jack Quaid (Scream).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Quaid has signed on for the film, which will be directed by Drew Hancock (who also penned the screenplay). Cregger was, at one point, being eyed to direct the film himself as a follow-up to Barbarian. However, he decided to shift focus to his own, original project Weapons, which recently added Pedro Pascal to its cast. Cregger will instead produce Companion alongside Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, and Roy Lee. Tracy Rosenblum and Andrew Childs are on board as executive producers.
For the time being, plot details are being kept fully under wraps on this one. It is merely described as a “sci-fi thriller,” but one that drew a lot of interest from various studios. New Line, which handles most of Warner Bros.’ genre films, won the project in a competitive bidding war earlier this year. Clearly, something about Hancock’s script was singing to the moneymen in Hollywood. Having Cregger’s name attached certainly doesn’t hurt anything, either.
As for Quaid, he has been having quite an impressive few years. He starred in 2022’s Scream in a pretty significant role and has had a recurring part on Prime Video’s hit series The Boys. He also stars on Star Trek: Lower Decks. Some of his other credits include the monster flick Rampage and the indie slasher Tragedy Girls. No word yet on just how soon Companion will begin filming, but this looks to be next up for the actor. Now it’s just a matter of filling out the cast around him.
Aside from this film and Weapons, Cregger is also set to produce The Occupant, which was yet another horror project that was at the center of a big bidding war. Warner Bros. and New Line appear to have a great deal of confidence in Cregger’s abilities, as they’re going all-in on him right now. If a little bit of that Barbarian magic rubs off on everything else coming down the pipeline, that figures to be a very good thing for horror fans.
Companion does not currently have a release date. Stay tuned for updates.
