Doomscrolling, the Pandemic, Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal Feuding: The First Trailer for Ari Aster's 'Eddington' Has Them All
Emma Stone and Austin Butler also star in the Cannes-premiering latest movie from the 'Hereditary', 'Midsommar' and 'Beau Is Afraid' filmmaker.
Two years after stressing out Joaquin Phoenix in Beau Is Afraid, Ari Aster has more tension and chaos in store for the Oscar-winning actor in Eddington, the writer/director's next film. The pair reunite for a trip back to 2020, to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to the movie's eponymous New Mexico location as it attempts to cope with the abrupt change to life as its citizens know it. Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux) portrays the small town's sheriff — and, like almost everyone at the time, he's not adverse to whiling away his hours doomscrolling, as the feature's just-dropped first trailer illustrates.
What awaits Sheriff Joe Cross as he flicks through social media? Clips of himself, of the charismatic Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler, The Bikeriders) preaching, of Joe's wife Louise (Emma Stone, Kinds of Kindness) contradicting one of his announcements, of Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us) running for re-election and more.
"If you value your life, you should think twice because the people at Eddington like guns," says Phoenix utters as Joe early in the debut trailer.
"Your pain is not a coincidence. You are not a coincidence. We are not a coincidence," advises Butler as Peak in the clip that the sheriff scrolls to next.
The storyline: putting Joe and the mayor on a collision course, which unsurprisingly causes ripples throughout Eddington, in a tale that's set to see townsfolk clash in a period that we all know couldn't have been more heightened and stressful.
Aster is back cultivating unease, then, as he did so expertly in Hereditary in 2018, then Midsommar in 2019, then Beau Is Afraid in 2023. Alongside Phoenix, Butler, Stone and Pascal, the acclaimed filmmaker has enlisted Luke Grimes (Yellowstone), Deirdre O'Connell (The Penguin) and Micheal Ward (Empire of Light) to help among his cast.
Eddington is premiering at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in May, screening in the prestigious event's official competition, before hitting US cinemas in July — but doesn't yet have a Down Under release date.
Check out the trailer for Eddington below:
Eddington releases in US cinemas on Friday, July 18, 2025 — we'll update you with an Australian release date when one is announced.
