A still from ‘Eddington’
| Photo Credit: A24

Ari Aster is back, and this time, he’s heading to the desert. The first teaser trailer for Eddington, Aster’s latest collaboration with A24, has dropped, teasing a ominous showdown in a small New Mexico town.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix as a volatile mayor and Pedro Pascal as the town sheriff, Eddington is described as genre-bending modern Western packed with surrealist undertones. The trailer offers glimpses of bizarre dialogue and a simmering conflict that threatens to unravel the entire town.

“If you value your life, you should think twice because the people at Eddington like guns,” Phoenix warns in the trailer. Later, Austin Butler delivers another cryptic line: “Your pain is not a coincidence. You are not a coincidence. We are not a coincidence.”

Emma Stone joins the cast, which also includes Butler, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr. The film will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May before hitting U.S. theaters on July 18.

Aster, known for his unsettling storytelling in Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau Is Afraid, co-produced Eddington through his Square Peg banner, alongside longtime partner Lars Knudsen. This marks Aster’s fourth film with A24 and his sixth collaboration with Square Peg.

Though plot details remain sparse, Eddington is already generating early hype as one of the year’s buzziest releases.