Patrick Wilson joins the cast of Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

No one does destruction porn quite like Roland Emmerich, and the director's next end-of-the-world epic will find the Moon falling from the god-damned sky. Alright. As with most of Emmerich's films, MOONFALL will feature an ensemble cast which is slowly beginning to fill up, and THR has the scoop on the latest actor to join up.

THR has reported that Patrick Wilson, who was featured in Roland Emmerich's World War II drama MIDWAY, is set to join the cast of MOONFALL. The upcoming film begins when the moon is knocked from its orbit by some mysterious force and is on a collision course for Earth. With life as we know it hanging in the balance and just weeks until impact, a ragtag team is launched into a seemingly impossible mission to land on the Moon and save humanity. Wilson will be joining Halle Berry (JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM) and Josh Gad (FROZEN II). Patrick Wilson's character is said to be a disgraced former NASA astronaut whose last mission ended in tragedy but might just hold a clue about the impending catastrophe. Berry will play a NASA astronaut-turned-administrator and former colleague of Wilson's character, while Gad will play the "genuis who correctly predicts that the moon has fallen out of its orbit, thus making the space-obsessed, profoundly unfiltered and eccentric man one of the most important people on Earth." Additionally, Charlie Plummer (ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD) has also joined the cast of MOONFALL, playing the teenage son of Wilson's character. Production on MOONFALL is looking to kick off production this fall in Montreal, with an expected 2021 release.

Last year, Emmerich said that MOONFALL is something of a mix between 2012 and INDEPENDENCE DAY, and that if you like his other movies, chances are you'll like MOONFALL as well.

If you like my movies, you’ll like this movie. It’s very much like 2012 and Independence Day. It’s a mix of the two, but without an extraterrestrial element. There is a big twist at some point, but I don’t want to give that away now. I had a very clear idea about the tone I wanted on this film. All my movies have humour and don’t take themselves too seriously. Comic relief is important in big films. Look at the original Star Wars. Or all the Marvel movies. You have to have a laugh as well.

Unlike his other movies, Roland Emmerich says that MOONFALL has franchise potential built right in. "I see this movie as having franchise potential," Emmerich said. "I haven’t done that before. On Independence Day, we did another one because the studio asked, and in fact, I have a third part if the studio is interested. I had seen Stargate as a trilogy but that didn’t come together. So all my movies but one have been standalone." Patrick Wilson will next be seen in THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, which is slated for a September 11, 2020 release.