There are movie announcements, and then there are movie announcements that stop people mid-scroll and make them re-read the headline twice.
Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez voicing the lead characters in an original animated film about fumbling romantics and alien fugitives from Illumination, the same studio that gave the world the Minions, is decidedly the second kind.
The project, titled Not Alone, was officially unveiled on Monday, June 22, at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, one of the most prestigious events in the animation industry.
Universal Pictures will distribute the film, which is slated to land in theaters on April 16, 2027. The announcement marks the first time in nearly a decade that Chalamet and Gomez have been attached to the same project, and their first reunion since the 2019 Woody Allen film A Rainy Day in New York.
Chalamet had actually teased the announcement on his Instagram Story the night before, posting a photo of a cloudy sky with the caption “new movie announcement tmrw :)” and a small rocket emoji that, in retrospect, was hiding in plain sight.
Fans, predictably, went into full speculation mode; some guessed Wonka 2, others were convinced it was something Dune-adjacent, and nobody guessed a romantic animated comedy about a man whose quiet life gets invaded by three tiny alien runaways. That is, genuinely, the premise. And it sounds exactly as fun as it should.
A Rocket Mechanic, a Plant Scientist, and Three Uninvited Aliens
In his animation debut, Chalamet will voice Joe, described as an “introverted rocket mechanic who lives a quiet life alone,” while Gomez is set to play Fran, a “brilliant astro-botanist who is developing the world’s first-ever plant-fueled rocket.”
The two are brought together professionally for the inaugural launch of this groundbreaking rocket, and the chemistry between them is immediate, even if neither of them is especially equipped to do anything about it.
Per the official synopsis, “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.”
That alone might have been enough for a perfectly serviceable animated romcom. But then Illumination leaned into what Illumination does best: chaos in small, adorable packages. Life becomes considerably more complicated when three tiny, unruly aliens, described as 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, and the trio quickly determines that Fran’s plant-fueled rocket could be exactly the thing they need to get back home to safety.
The film is, at its core, a love story with three very chaotic, very small stowaways complicating every step of it. It is the kind of premise that sounds deceptively simple on paper and almost certainly lands differently onscreen, particularly with a cast this stacked.
Dunk, Welly, and Shirm will be voiced by Rob Brydon (Barbie, The Trip), Diane Morgan (Cunk On, Mandy), and Jamie Demetriou (Cruella, Jay Kelly), while Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein will take on the role of Officer Zandro.
The film’s supporting cast also includes Allison Janney (Minions & Monsters, The Diplomat) and Lamorne Morris (Fargo, Spider-Noir).
The alien trio, being voiced by three of Britain’s sharpest comic actors, Brydon, Morgan, and Demetriou, is one of the more quietly exciting details buried in this announcement.
Anyone who has watched Diane Morgan dismantle historical events with a straight face in Cunk On Britain, or watched Jamie Demetriou’s BAFTA-winning work in Fleabag, understands that these are not people who simply deliver lines.
They build characters out of specificity and strangeness, and that energy should translate beautifully into the kind of unruly, loveable alien mischief Illumination has built an empire around.
The Team Behind the Film
Not Alone will be co-directed by Eric Guillon, Claire Dodgson, and Jonathan Del Val, all of whom are deeply embedded in the Illumination universe.
Guillon is the co-director of Despicable Me 3 and the original designer of both Despicable Me and Minions, with additional design credits on The Secret Life of Pets and Sing.
Dodgson served as editor on The Lorax, Minions, Despicable Me 3, and Minions: The Rise of Gru, while Del Val co-directed Minions: The Rise of Gru and The Secret Life of Pets 2.
This is not a team learning on the job. These are people who have spent years immersed in the visual and tonal grammar of Illumination’s world, and the collective depth of their credits suggests a film that will know exactly which register it is playing in.
The film is produced by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, with executive producers Joy Poirel, Richard Curtis, and David Distenfeld. Richard Curtis, the British writer and director behind Love Actually, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, is a particularly interesting addition to the list of producers.
His instinct for romantic comedy that feels warm without tipping into saccharine is well-documented, and his presence as an executive producer suggests that the emotional core of Not Alone, the slow, awkward collapse of two people who are not particularly good at letting anyone in, is being taken seriously alongside the alien comedy.
Illumination’s decision to slot Not Alone into the April 16, 2027, release window is also a deliberate strategic choice.
The early April window has become something of a signature launchpad for the studio, having previously positioned both The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in that same calendar territory.
Both films performed exceptionally at the box office, and Illumination will be hoping that a fresh original property, backed by two of the most recognizable names in their respective industries, can carry that momentum into a new franchise of its own.
What This Means for Chalamet, Gomez, and Everyone Watching
It is worth slowing down to appreciate the specific moment both Chalamet and Gomez are in when this project lands.
Chalamet most recently appeared in Marty Supreme, which earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor and a best picture nomination for his work as a producer.
Before that, he had Oscar nominations for his role in the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and his breakthrough performance in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name.
He is currently in production on Dune: Part Three, the final installment of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy, which is scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, 2026.
Chalamet is a four-time Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe winner, and Actor Award winner, and is set to star in his first-ever feature-length animated film. That is not a small thing.
Animation demands a completely different performance discipline from live action; the voice carries every emotional beat that a camera angle or a physical expression would otherwise convey.
The fact that Chalamet has chosen to make his animated debut with Illumination is its own statement about where his instincts are taking him in this phase of his career.
Gomez, for her part, returns to Only Murders in the Building for Season 6 on Hulu later this year. Her role as Mabel Mora has earned her five Golden Globe nominations and one acting Emmy nomination, in addition to four best comedy series Emmy nominations as an executive producer on the show.
She is no stranger to animation, having lent her voice to the Hotel Transylvania film series.
But Not Alone represents something different, an original property with no franchise scaffolding beneath it, where the characters live or die on the strength of the story being told and the chemistry between the performers bringing it to life.
Illumination is currently riding a strong wave, having premiered Minions & Monsters at Annecy, where early reviews were notably warm. Variety’s Guy Lodge described it as a peak for the series and evidence that the Minions function best as true leads rather than sidekicks.
With that film set for a July 1, 2026, release, the studio now has a clear runway for the announcement of Not Alone, giving them nearly a full year to build anticipation before the film opens in April 2027.
What the final product looks like remains to be seen. But on paper, the combination of Chalamet’s precise, introverted energy and Gomez’s warmth and comedic instinct, set against the backdrop of a runaway alien situation and a plant-powered rocket launch, reads like an Illumination film that knows it has something to prove with an original story.
The studio has been here before with Migration and The Secret Life of Pets, but the talent assembled around Not Alone, from the directors to the voice cast to the executive producers, signals a film that is swinging considerably bigger.
April 2027 is a long way off. But Dunk, Welly, and Shirm are already the most interesting animated characters nobody has seen yet. Not Alone arrives in theaters on April 16, 2027.
