Ari Aster’s Next Film Keeps Growing: Cory Michael Smith Joins Scapegoat

Los Angeles — The cast list for Ari Aster’s next film keeps getting longer. Cory Michael Smith is the latest actor to join Scapegoat, the A24 thriller that Aster is directing from his own script, Deadline reported this week.

Scarlett Johansson leads the ensemble, which already includes Jacob Elordi, Jude Law, Ella Purnell, Caleb Landry Jones and Samba Schutte. Aster is producing through Square Peg, the banner he runs with Lars Knudsen, and A24 — the distributor behind all of his previous features — is on board again. Production is expected to begin in November.

A director with a very specific reputation

Aster built his name on films that unsettle: Hereditary, Midsommar, Beau Is Afraid and, most recently, Eddington. Scapegoat is the follow-up to that run, and the steady drip of casting news has done exactly what A24 tends to let it do — build anticipation without giving much away. Plot details remain under wraps, and the speculation filling the gap online should be treated as exactly that: speculation.

An Ari Aster ensemble is its own kind of announcement. You rarely know the story, but you always know the tone.

Who Cory Michael Smith is bringing

Smith arrives off a strong stretch. He drew notice for HBO’s Mountainhead and played a memorable role in Saturday Night, and he is a familiar face to television audiences from his years on Gotham. Adding him to a cast that already pairs Johansson with Elordi and Law deepens a bench that is heavy on actors known for precise, slightly off-kilter work — which is to say, exactly the register an Aster film tends to ask for.

For now, the most honest summary is the simplest one: a major auteur, his usual studio, and an ensemble that keeps attracting serious talent. The rest — what Scapegoat is actually about — is a question for later. Aster has earned the benefit of the doubt, and the patience.