Ella Purnell Joins Scapegoat - A24's Mysterious New Cast

A new face has quietly slipped into Ari Aster's carefully guarded world. Ella Purnell is the latest name attached to Scapegoat, joining a roster that already includes Scarlett Johansson, Jacob Elordi and Jude Law.

The announcement came with the usual Aster-era secrecy. Roles are being kept under wraps. The official plot is still a closely held secret. Which, given Aster's reputation for cultivating mystery, feels exactly right.

Speculation is already racing ahead. Some insiders whisper about a doctor who operates on an internet-famous patient. Others imagine a tender science fiction romance. A few think Aster is pivoting toward a more traditional drama this time. All of these guesses are part of the fun—until the film arrives and rearranges expectations.

Also newly added to the cast are Caleb Landry Jones and Samba Schutte. Jones arrives with a resume that reads like a who’s who of daring filmmakers: he has worked with Martin McDonagh on Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, with Luc Besson on Dracula and DogMan, with Justin Kurzel on Nitram, and with Jim Jarmusch on The Dead Don’t Die. He has also appeared in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project and Doug Liman’s American Made. Jones is reportedly set to appear in an upcoming A24 horror directed by Arkasha Stevenson.

Samba Schutte has been drawing fresh attention for his performance as Mr Diabate on Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s apocalypse-tinged Apple series. His character feels like a small, stubborn sun in a world that’s gone dark—an attempt to find the human in the end times. Schutte previously turned heads on Our Flag Means Death and in the NBC comedy Sunnyside, and Pluribus is now poised to return for a second season.

Purnell herself is riding a busy wave. She leads Prime Video’s Fallout and carries a lead role in Sky Atlantic’s dark comedy Sweetpea, whose second season arrives in November. Viewers may also recognize her work from Yellowjackets, Arcane, Star Trek: Prodigy and Sweetbitter. On the horizon are the thriller The Return of Stanley Atwell, opposite Nicholas Galitzine, and a potential return for Fallout season 3. Her representation includes Curtis Brown Group, Range Media Partners, WME and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

Behind the camera, Ari Aster wrote and will direct Scapegoat. Lars Knudsen, a longtime producing partner of Aster, is producing through Square Peg. With Aster in control of both script and direction, the combination of an enigmatic premise and a star-studded cast makes Scapegoat one of A24’s most intriguing upcoming projects.

We still have more questions than answers. But then, isn’t that part of the lure when Aster makes a film: the slow reveal, the image that lingers, the idea that keeps you thinking long after the credits roll. Keep an eye out—Scapegoat looks set to stir conversation the moment it arrives.