Shawn Levy’s Next Netflix Project Is a Grief-Driven Sci-Fi That Sounds Like a Spiritual Successor to ‘Arrival’
Few filmmakers have built a relationship with Netflix quite like Shawn Levy. Over the past several years, the Montreal-born director has become one of the streamer’s most reliable creative partners, delivering crowd-pleasing originals that consistently blend spectacle with genuine emotional weight. His instinct for finding the human story inside a high-concept premise has made him one of the most sought-after voices in mainstream genre filmmaking.
After steering the MCU and stepping into the Star Wars galaxy, Levy is coming back to the streamer that has become synonymous with his production company 21 Laps. That homecoming arrives with considerable buzz, and it touches on a corner of sci-fi that has been genuinely underserved since Denis Villeneuve redefined it nearly a decade ago.
Netflix has acquired the spec script for ‘Somewhere Out There’, written by Max Taxe, after winning a competitive bidding war, with Levy attached to direct and produce through his 21 Laps banner alongside partner Dan Levine. The story centers on a grieving father who, after losing his wife, sends a message into the cosmos, and to his surprise, receives a response from somewhere out there. It is a premise that immediately signals something more introspective and quietly devastating than a typical blockbuster.
The project is described as falling squarely into the emotional sci-fi space, positioned in the vein of ‘Arrival’, the alien encounter drama that Levy himself produced, and ‘The Adam Project’, the time-travel family film he directed for Netflix in 2022. That double reference point is meaningful. Both films succeed not because of their science fiction mechanics but because of the grief, longing, and human connection at their cores, and ‘Somewhere Out There’ appears designed with exactly that emotional architecture in mind.
The script generated considerable industry heat thanks to Levy’s attachment, with sources indicating that several prominent actors are already circling the lead role of the father. Levy has built his filmmaking career around collaborations with major stars, and given the emotionally demanding nature of the central performance, casting will be one of the most closely watched developments as the project moves forward.
Taxe has already established a working relationship with 21 Laps through his screenplay ‘Ripple’, a time-travel romance that has Jack Quaid attached to star, and previously wrote ‘Moonshot’, the 2022 sci-fi romantic comedy that featured Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse. His growing profile as a writer with a clear affinity for emotionally grounded genre stories makes him a natural fit for Levy’s sensibility. The announcement, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, arrives as Levy prepares to wrap his commitment to ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’, which is set to hit theaters on May 28, 2027 and stars Ryan Gosling, Amy Adams, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, and Aaron Pierre.
No release date has been set for ‘Somewhere Out There’ at this stage. But with Levy’s track record and a premise that already feels like it has awards conversation written into its DNA, anticipation is already building. If the central relationship lands with the same emotional precision as ‘Arrival’, this could be one of Netflix’s most talked-about originals in years. What kind of actor do you think could carry the weight of this story’s grieving father, and is there anyone you would love to see Levy cast in the role?
