Illumination, the studio behind the Despicable Me and Minions empires, announced Monday at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival that Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez will lead the voice cast of Not Alone, an animated sci-fi romantic comedy set for release on April 16, 2027.
The film marks Chalamet’s first feature-length animation credit, a significant departure for an actor whose recent run — Wonka, Dune: Part Two, A Complete Unknown, Marty Supreme — has kept him firmly in prestige live-action territory. He voiced his announcement with characteristic social media coyness, posting a photo of a cloudy sky to Instagram on Sunday night with the caption “new movie announcement tmrw :)” and a rocket emoji. The news landed as a genuine surprise: most industry observers assumed the teaser pointed to another collaboration with an auteur director.
Chalamet plays Joe, a socially withdrawn rocket mechanic, opposite Gomez’s Fran, an astro-botanist building the world’s first plant-powered rocket. When assigned to work together on the vehicle’s inaugural launch, they develop an obvious romantic chemistry that neither handles particularly well. The plot thickens when three small, raucous aliens — Dunk, Welly, and Shirm — take cover in Joe’s home, pursued by Zandro, a bungling interplanetary law enforcement officer voiced by Brett Goldstein of Ted Lasso fame. The aliens fix their escape hopes on Fran’s rocket, tangling the budding love story with an interstellar getaway.
The film reunites Chalamet and Gomez, who previously appeared together in Woody Allen’s 2019 film A Rainy Day in New York. For Gomez, the project arrives after her Oscar-nominated turn in Emilia Pérez and amid the continued run of Only Murders in the Building. She has prior animated experience through the Hotel Transylvania franchise, while Chalamet has none.
Three directors share the helm — Eric Guillon, a visual architect of the Despicable Me universe; Claire Dodgson, editor of The Lorax and Minions; and Jonathan Del Val, who co-directed Minions: The Rise of Gru. Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri produces, with Richard Curtis among the executive producers. The supporting cast includes Allison Janney, Lamorne Morris, Diane Morgan, Rob Brydon, and Jamie Demetriou.
For Chalamet, Not Alone slots between Dune: Part Three, arriving December 18, and James Mangold’s motocross drama High Side, currently in development.
