Josh Brolin in Talks to Replace Pedro Pascal for Zach Cregger’s New Horror Movie

Deadpool 2 star Josh Brolin is reportedly in talks to star in Weapons, the next horror movie from Barbarian director Zach Cregger. The film had originally been set to star Pedro Pascal, but the star had to back out due to scheduling conflicts once he committed to Marvel’s The Fantastic Four, which is set to go into production soon. Weapons had been aiming for a fall 2023 start date, but was pushed back — likely due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year, although no official reason has been given. If the Brolin deal closes, Weapons would be the actor’s first horror movie.

Very little is known about Weapons at this point. The movie has been described as a “horror epic” and compared to Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 movie that featured a star-studded cast, all appearing in interrelated stories that orbit one another and occasionally interact.

Cregger scored himself an eight-figure sum from New Line to write and direct the new project, a number that is more than twice Barbarian‘s $4.5-million budget. It seems likely the label behind It and The Conjuring is looking for a franchise — or at least a tentpole — but given Cregger’s reluctance to make a Barbarian sequel, it’s also entirely possible New Line is just trying to form a relationship with the filmmaker himself.

“Zach doesn’t want to do a sequel. He’s very much, it’s stand-alone, it was really good, and I think sometimes with certain things, that’s the best way to go,” Barbarian star Georgina Campbell told ComicBook.com last year. “He is the creator, the writer, director, so he knows. That’s his thing, he doesn’t want to expand upon it, so just leave it alone.”

In addition to Brolin, the cast would include Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets), Jack Quaid (The Boys, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Lukas Cage (The White Lotus, You), Megan Suri (Never Have I Ever, Poker Face), and Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows, Blue Beetle).

Cregger will serve as producer, along with Roy Lee of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures, according to THR, who first broke the casting news. Vertigo’s Miri Yoon also produces.

Cregger also told ComicBook.com back in 2022 that he had an idea for a DC movie set in Gotham City, but he had not yet pitched it to anyone at Warner Bros.