Ridley Scott returns to sci-fi with "The Dog Stars" in August 2026

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It has been nearly a decade since Ridley Scott last made a sci-fi movie. He’s returning to the genre this year — in August, in fact — with The Dog Stars , which features Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin . Scott has stayed away from sci-fi longer than Steven Spielberg did before Spielberg returned to the genre this year with Disclosure Day . Spielberg’s last sci-fi film was Ready Player One , which debuted theatrically in 2018, a year after Scott’s last sci-fi movie. Scott has since focused almost exclusively on period films of various kinds. However, a string of recent underperformances at the box office could have prompted him to shift gears. Not that he can be slowed down; Scott famously juggles multiple projects at the same time, pivoting to whichever seems most likely to get produced sooner.