Weapons (2025 film)

Weapons is an upcoming American mystery horror film written, produced, and directed by Zach Cregger. It stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan. The film follows a small community after 17 kids mysteriously disappear overnight.

Weapons
Teaser poster
Directed by	Zach Cregger
Written by	Zach Cregger
Produced by	Roy Lee Zach Cregger Miri Yoon J. D. Lifshitz Raphael Margules
Starring	Josh Brolin Julia Garner Alden Ehrenreich Austin Abrams Cary Christopher Benedict Wong Amy Madigan
Cinematography	Larkin Seiple
Edited by	Joe Murphy
Music by	Ryan Holladay Hays Holladay Zach Cregger
Production companies	New Line Cinema Subconscious Vertigo Entertainment BoulderLight Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	August 8, 2025 (2025-08-08)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$38 million[1]

Weapons is scheduled to be released in the United States on August 8, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Premise

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.

— Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema

Cast

• Josh Brolin as Archer Graff, father of Matthew, one of the missing children^[2]
• Julia Garner as Justine Gandy, a teacher who finds almost all her class has vanished^[2]
• Alden Ehrenreich as Paul, a police officer who has a complicated relationship with Justine^[2]
• Austin Abrams as Anthony
• Cary Christopher as Alex, the only child from Justine's class who did not disappear
• Benedict Wong as Andrew, the school principal
• Amy Madigan
• June Diane Raphael
• Clayton Farris as Terry
• Whitmer Thomas
• Toby Huss as Captain Ed, the police captain
• Luke Speakman as Matthew Graff, Archer's son and one of Justine's missing students

Production

Zach Cregger (pictured) auctioned the rights to the film's script for $38 million.

After the financial and critical success of his 2022 film Barbarian, Zach Cregger began work on a new spec script titled Weapons. It has been described as a "horror epic" with a more "personal story" for the filmmaker, partly inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film Magnolia.^[2] The screenplay entered the market on January 22, 2023, and prompted a bidding war among Netflix, New Line Cinema, TriStar Pictures, and Universal Pictures.^[3][4] New Line secured the rights within 24 hours after offering $38 million to cover all costs, including production and salaries, with Cregger receiving $10 million as writer, director, and producer and final cut privilege (pending test screening reactions to the film) in addition to a guaranteed theatrical release.^[3] Jordan Peele, whose company Monkeypaw Productions participated in the bidding war in conjunction with Universal, parted ways with longtime managers Joel Zadak and Peter Principato, the latter of whom was also Cregger's manager, after losing the auction.^[5]

In May 2023, Pedro Pascal and Renate Reinsve were cast in the film.^[6][7] In February 2024, Pascal exited the project due to his commitments to the film The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), with Josh Brolin entering talks to replace him.^[8] In April, Julia Garner and Alden Ehrenreich joined the cast, with Brolin confirmed to join as well.^[9][10] In May, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, and June Diane Raphael were announced to have joined the cast.^[11][12] Principal photography was scheduled to begin in Atlanta in May 2024.^[9]

Release

Weapons is scheduled to be released in the United States on August 8, 2025.^[13] It was originally scheduled to be released on January 16, 2026.^[14]