Onslaught: Adria Arjona to star in Adam Wingard’s new action thriller

Adam Wingard is done with the MonsterVerse (for now), but he has found a leading lady for his next project. THR reports that Adria Arjona is in final negotiations to star in and executive produce Onslaught for A24, a project described as a “gonzo action horror thriller.“

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it’s said that Arjona will play “a mother who falls back on a particular set of skills in order to protect her loved ones after she runs afoul of a threat that has escaped a secret military base.” In addition to directing Onslaught, Wingard is also co-writing the script with Simon Barrett, who he worked with on You’re Next and The Guest. Production is expected to kick off in New Mexico later this year.

Arjona has been having quite the year. She won praise for her performance alongside Glen Powell in Hit Man, appeared in Zoe Kravitz’s Blink Twice, and will be returning for the second season of Andor, which will debut on Disney+ next year.

Onslaught will be something of a return to his roots for Wingard, as the director has spent the last few years playing with his pals Godzilla and King Kong. He helmed Godzilla v Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and although the studio had been keen on getting him back for another sequel, there was no deal in place for him to do so. He had been open to returning, previously saying, “There’s always the seduction of making a trilogy out of it, and I think that there’s some untapped areas to go into. There’s also ways to continue to innovate the stylized approach to the MonsterVerse, and what’s great about the MonsterVerse is that it’s allowed so many different directors to approach it with their unique style and color palette.”

Wingard officially stepped down to focus on Onslaught, and the studio tapped Grant Sputore, the director of Hilary Swank’s sci-fi thriller I Am Mother, to helm the new installment. Dave Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) is writing the script. The MonsterVerse film is slated for a March 26, 2027 release.