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Are Timothée, Sydney and Glen the new Leo, Scarlett and Tom? Studio execs are certainly hoping they are, with Hollywood betting on stars like Paul Mescal and Jenna Ortega to carry slates and save the box office.
The cape was once the kingmaker. But the movie stars at the top of studios’ most-wanted lists today have largely avoided cinematic universes. Instead of being pulled up to the A-list with a call from Marvel or DC (like earlier breakouts Chris Evans, Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa), today’s top talents — according to THR’s survey of executives, managers and agents — were anointed by auteur directors. Austin Butler was tapped by Baz Luhrmann for Elvis, while Denis Villeneuve gave nearly a third of this list their first franchise movie with his Dune features.
Today’s young stars are also less formulaic than their predecessors of just a decade ago, whose indie debuts or tiny Oscar turns were quickly followed by IP-backed film series. They are more agnostic, too, moving easily among studio filmmaking, indie efforts and television. Unlike past eras, there’s also not a single “type” dominating the group. “Are we going to find ourselves going after the same roles? Absolutely,” says New A-Lister (and THR cover star) Glen Powell. “But are we ever in competition? No. We do different things.”
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Studio slates are undoubtedly still dominated by franchise installments, but executives are looking for star vehicles, again. Albeit these vehicles may come in the form of remakes or reboots of left-of-center IP from library rich studios. (See: Sydney Sweeney tackling Barbarella.) Says one top exec, “Hollywood spent too long making franchises the star rather than building up the next generation of talent. We haven’t incentivized writers to create star-creating vehicles.”
As the entertainment industry struggles to get audiences to theaters and adjusts to the new economic realities of the post-streaming-war era, stars like Sweeney and Powell, who delivered $220 million at the box office with Anyone But You, are offering a glimmer of optimism to beleaguered studios and their balance sheets. And while the New A-List may be diverse in terms of talents and personas, there’s one area where that’s certainly not the case: actual diversity. Despite pushes toward inclusion, the mostly white names exemplify how studios have failed to radically change the paradigm. (The next quickly ascending tier includes actors like Kingsley Ben-Adir, Damson Idris and Ayo Edebiri, so there’s still hope.)
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are considered by most to top any list of young talent, but they haven’t yet reached the professional level of predecessors like Margot Robbie, Emma Stone or Michael B. Jordan — who not only can greenlight movies for themselves, but as producers are breaking new talent and reviving long dormant franchises. But many of these 10 stars will soon be giving that set a run for the money, not to mention the box office.
THE GOLDEN BOY
If big-name directors, as opposed to studios, are now anointing top Hollywood talent, then Butler, 32, certainly has been blessed: Since his Oscar nomination for Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, Jeff Nichols has tapped him for ’60s-set The Bikeriders (out June 21) and Darren Aronofsky chose him to lead his next film, the ’90s New York City-set Caught Stealing. “Everybody wants him to be the lead of everything,” says one agency partner. Despite meme-able moments about his Elvis accent and his hairless look in Dune: Part Two, he’s managed to cultivate an all-too-rare movie-star mystique. (Yes, he’s on social media, but he’s posted just four times to his Instagram.) This has insiders wondering whether he could follow in the footsteps of Brad Pitt. Perhaps it’s fitting that his first high-profile film role came opposite Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The consensus is that Butler has all the trappings of a classic Hollywood leading man, a look and onscreen presence that has played across decades.
THE SURE THING
No other actor can boast leading two live-action films that were box office successes in the past year: Chalamet’s December tentpole Wonka brought in $632.3 million and March’s Dune: Part Two crossed $700 million. Drawing industry comparisons to Leonardo DiCaprio, the 28-year-old has had a similar trajectory — working with top filmmakers while still in his teens (Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar) then breaking out in a role that netted him an Oscar nom (Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name). He has a reputation for focusing intensely on a single project and for being hands-on when it comes to the marketing of his tentpoles. Currently, he is filming the Bob Dylan biopic from James Mangold, who two decades ago directed Joaquin Phoenix to an Oscar nom for playing Johnny Cash. As for his recent hits, exploratory talks about Wonka 2 are underway and Villeneuve intends to make Dune: Messiah, thought not anytime soon. Says a producer, “Timothée is the most proven of the new A-list.”
THE SHY HEARTTHROB
The Aussie actor, 26, parlayed his breakout as the love interest in Netflix’s hit YA franchise The Kissing Booth into a career that has focused on filmmakers over box office. He is currently filming Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and is making his Cannes competition debut in Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada. Before that, there was Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. While he doesn’t engage much with Hollywood — opting to be packaged into prestige fare rather than going for a ready-made open studio call — his movie-star potential was solidified with Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Still, even with a wide release, the film’s streaming status meant it was never going to be a measure of box office appeal. Instead, the role of Elordi’s that studios point to in terms of audience interest is HBO’s Euphoria. Even though producers say he has the physicality of a big action star (he’s 6 feet 5), Elordi has seemed uninterested in those roles. Warners wanted to bring him in to read for James Gunn’s DC relaunch of Superman, but Elordi turned down a shot at vying for the Man of Steel.
THE ART HOUSE PRINCE
The true test of Mescal’s star power will come in November with the release of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel. Surprisingly — given the near-constant media attention since his debut in Hulu’s Normal People in 2020 — the film will mark the 28-year-old’s first full-fledged studio lead. The Irish actor has shied away from traditional Hollywood ventures, opting instead for festival fodder. His first post-Normal People job was a small supporting role in the Elena Ferrante adaptation The Lost Daughter, followed by the indie Aftersun — both of which landed Cannes premieres. Then there was a stop off in London theater for a reworking of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. The choices netted him an Oscar nomination for Aftersun. “Every filmmaker loves Paul Mescal. But audiences don’t [yet] know who he is,” says one executive. (The actor was up for the role of Bruce Springsteen in the Scott Cooper-directed biopic that ultimately went to Jeremy Allen White.) Audience perceptions are likely to change with Gladiator II, however. Footage at this year’s CinemaCon impressed theater owners, and Mescal is near the top of the list for major studio roles, including as one of the Fab Four in Sam Mendes’ coming Beatles movies.
THE GEN Z OBSESSION
Netflix is not known for minting movie stars for itself, but it does a solid job of being a launching pad for performers that later go theatrical. Wednesday, which the streamer says is its most watched English-language series ever, made a quick star out of Ortega, who at that point was still known more for her work as a child star on series like The CW’s Jane the Virgin. Her popularity has had a partial trial run at the multiplex, with two rebooted Scream films grossing $140 million and $160 million. Ortega parlayed Wednesday into a lead role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (out Sept. 6), which reteams her with Wednesday director and executive producer Tim Burton. Other studios are in a wait-and-see mode on how the Warner Bros. feature plays, but the 21-year-old and her team are projecting confidence, said to be seeking seven-figure paydays on future projects. The actress’ upcoming slate includes Sony’s Klara and the Sun for director Taika Waititi as well as the A24 dark comedy Death of a Unicorn, with Wednesday season two on the horizon.
THE MEGAWATT SMILE
Powell put his time in, slowly climbing Hollywood’s ladder as an actor, producer and writer. After years of smaller parts in projects like Hidden Figures and Expendables 3, the charismatic Texan won over audiences (and Netflix execs) with the streaming success of his first leading man role in the 2018 workplace romcom Set It Up. Then came Top Gun: Maverick, which earned Powell (and his six-pack) plenty of media attention, and war drama Devotion, which he optioned the material for, produced and starred in, which signaled his ambitions. Still, it was the one-two punch of his festival darling Hit Man, which he co-wrote with Richard Linklater, and his Sydney Sweeney romcom Anyone But You that thrust him onto the A-list. In the months since, Powell, who has a reputation for being hugely involved in and enthusiastic about all parts of the movie-making and marketing process, has fielded a dizzying number of offers. He’s taken some, including a Running Man remake from Edgar Wright and JJ Abrams’ next directorial effort, and passed on others (i.e. a Jurassic Park update). And though “movie star” has always been his goal, Powell is also co-creating a TV series — a college football comedy with the Manning bros. — that he’ll star in for Hulu, and, wait for it, penning a Broadway musical.
Read THR’s cover story with Powell.
THE CHAMELEON
The powerhouse performer of the bunch, Pugh’s breakout came in the indie Lady Macbeth in 2016. She followed this with an Oscar nomination for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and the A24 horror hit Midsommar, proving both her critical and commercial appeal. While Don’t Worry Darling, the first major studio film that Pugh led, had a rough landing, she’s held her own in ensembles like Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. And while studios are not yet ready to hang a franchise on Pugh’s shoulders alone, she is a regular at film markets, throwing her weight into packages like the upcoming romancer We Live in Time, in which she co-stars with Andrew Garfield. The English actress also is one of the few New A-Listers making a full-court press with Marvel. (Yes, Zendaya’s in Spider-Man, but she signed on nearly a decade ago. And it’s safe to assume Sydney Sweeney won’t be doing another Madame Web.) Pugh, 28, earned an eight-figure payday for two Marvel films, first the Scarlett Johansson-led Black Widow then Thunderbolts, where she will be at the top of the call sheet. She also popped up in the TV series Hawkeye, showing her dedication (or, at the very least, contractual obligation).
THE HUSTLER
There is no denying Sweeney’s work ethic. At 26, she has over 50 professional credits, more than nearly everyone else on this list. With unabashed commercial ambition, Sweeney has drawn comparisons to Scarlett Johansson and is credited as being a savvy marketer of her films, notably Anyone But You, the rare theatrical rom-com hit she made with Glen Powell. After garnering much buzz (and Emmy noms) for both Euphoria and The White Lotus, she quickly catapulted to star status and launched her own production banner, Fifty-Fifty, in 2020. Immaculate, her first top-billed solo theatrical release and her first as a producer, is one of the highest grossers for specialty distributor Neon, with a respectable $22 million. And while not every recent move has panned out, they are calculated. She signed on for the ill-fated Madame Web in order to get in good with Sony, which made Anyone But You and is handling the upcoming Barbarella remake, which has landed Edgar Wright as director.
THE GENRE QUEEN
Like several stars on this list, Taylor-Joy, 28, has a big proving-ground moment on the horizon. For her, that’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, which debuted at Cannes. She has established herself as a sharp actress since breaking out in Robert Eggers’ cerebral horror film The Witch, becoming a filmmaker favorite for elevated female-led genre fair, from M. Night Shyamalan’s Split (2017) to the high-concept culinary thriller The Menu (2022). General audiences most likely know her from popular Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, but she has since turned down big TV projects in favor of a theatrical career. Her work in Furiosa shows she can do action, and she’ll stay on that path with the upcoming Scott Derrickson feature The Gorge, rumored to be a love story centering on two assassins, and the genre thriller Sacrifice, in which she’ll share the screen with bona fide action star Chris Evans.
THE UNICORN
If there is a succinct, one-word answer to the gnawing questions that keep studio execs up at night — “Who can open a movie?” “Who will audiences leave their homes to see?” — it would be “Zendaya,” the award-winning actress whose outfits alone generate multiday news cycles. The closest comp for her current status, note execs, is ’90s-era Julia Roberts, who was pulling down awards nominations for Steel Magnolias while releasing crowd-pleasers like Pretty Woman. Notably, Zendaya, 27, has achieved this status with few film credits. After she did time in the kids TV trenches, Spider-Man: Homecoming launched her at the box office, followed by surprise musical hit The Greatest Showman. Euphoria, a show built around her (and co-starring fellow New A-Listers Sweeney and Elordi), set her up for her current rise, though her ascendant-movie-star demand puts that show’s return in question. While three Spider-Man films kept her in theaters in regular intervals (the fourth remains stalled), Zendaya landed Dune (or, more accurately, Dune landed Zendaya). She has yet to announce any other studio films and doesn’t need paycheck projects: She has lucrative endorsement deals with Bulgari and Lancôme and earned more by starring in and producing Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, a reported $10 million, than she would have with a Marvel movie.
This story first appeared in the May 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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