Companion: Rupert Friend cast in sci-fi thriller from the Barbarian team

The sci-fi thriller Companion is coming our way from writer/director Drew Hancock and the team behind last year’s horror hit Barbarian, and for the last month they have been assembling the cast. We’ve previously heard that Jack Quaid (Scream 2022), Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows), Lukas Gage (You), Megan Suri (Never Have I Ever), and Sophie Thatcher (The Boogeyman) will be playing roles in the film – and now The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Rupert Friend (Asteroid City) has also been cast in Companion.

New Line Cinema went all-in on a partnership with Barbarian (watch it HERE) writer/director Zach Cregger and the film’s producers at BoulderLight Pictures. New Line came out the winner in a bidding war over Cregger’s next film, a mysterious horror project called Weapons. They signed a first look deal with BoulderLight Pictures, tasking the company with developing high concept genre projects for them. And they gave the greenlight to Companion, which is being produced by BoulderLight and Cregger.

Hancock wrote the screenplay for Companion, and Cregger was so impressed by it that he considered making the film his directorial follow-up to Barbarian. Instead, Hancock will be making his feature directorial debut with Companion while Cregger focuses on Weapons.

Details on the plot are being kept completely under wraps, but The Hollywood Reporter hears that the makers of Companion are describing it as being “self-contained”. Hancock’s previous writing credits include episodes of Supah Ninjas, Blue Mountain State, Fred: The Show, Suburgatory, Faking It, Mr. Pickles, and My Dead Ex (which he co-created), as well as the movie Fred 3: Camp Fred. While he has never directed a movie before, he has directed episodes of Acceptable TV and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as a Tenacious D music video.

Cregger is producing Companion with Raphael Margules and J.D. Lifshitz of BoulderLight Pictures, as well as Roy Lee of Vertigo. BoulderLight’s Tracy Rosenblum and Vertigo’s Andrew Childs serve as executive producers.

Even though the project is shrouded in secrecy, The Hollywood Reporter was able to dig up the fact that Thatcher’s character is “more than meets the eye”. They’ve also heard that Friend’s character doesn’t live up to the actor’s last name.

Are you interested in Companion, and are you glad to hear that Rupert Friend is in the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.