Illumination announced the movie at the Annecy Animation Festival this morning, per Variety. Not Alone will star Chalamet as Joe, an “introverted rocket mechanic who lives a quiet life alone,” while Gomez will voice Fran, a “brilliant astro-botanist who is developing the world’s first-ever plant-fueled rocket.” A plot synopsis continues: “When Joe and Fran are brought together to prepare for the inaugural launch of this revolutionary rocket, there are immediate sparks, but neither is particularly adept at romance. Life becomes more complicated when three aliens — tiny, unruly and adorable — take refuge in Joe’s home. Dunk, Welly and Shirm are on the interplanetary run from a zealous-yet-inept officer of the law named Zandro. The aliens determine that Fran’s rocket could provide their means of getting back home to safety.”
The film is already dated for April 16, 2027, and will feature the voices of Rob Brydon, Diane Morgan, and Jamie Demetriou as the aliens, which presumably means they’ll speak in at least fuller sentences than the minions. Not Alone will also star Brett Goldstein as Officer Zandro and Allison Janney and Lamorne Morris in supporting roles.
Illumination is currently riding high off the success of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which, critical reviews aside, opened in April and is the highest-grossing film of the year so far, becoming the first to surpass $1 billion at the box office. The minions are also perennial hit characters, with Minions & Monsters due out on July 1. However, Illumination’s original, non-franchise-IP output has been rather sparing in recent years, and a bit of a mixed bag. The most recent one was 2023’s Migration, which was the studio’s first original film since 2016’s The Secret Life Of Pets and Sing, both of which spawned sequels within a few years. We’ll see next year how Not Alone pans out, but perhaps we should get used to saying the names Dunk, Welly, and Shrim.
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