NEON has released the official trailer for Hope, the new sci-fi thriller from Na Hong-jin, the director of The Wailing.
Set in the remote South Korean village of Hope Harbor, the film begins with what appears to be a local emergency. Police chief Bum-seok, played by Hwang Jung-min, is drawn into a disturbing investigation after strange violence hits the village. But as the situation escalates, the mystery expands far beyond a simple creature attack.
That is where Hope starts to sound very Na Hong-jin. His films rarely stay in one neat genre box, and this one appears to move from rural thriller to monster movie to alien-invasion panic without politely asking permission first. What begins as a village crisis becomes something much stranger, much bigger and possibly universe-level disastrous.
The cast is a major part of the appeal. Alongside Hwang Jung-min, the film stars Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender. Vikander and Fassbender play extraterrestrial beings, adding an extra layer of curiosity to a film that already looks deeply unhinged in the best possible way.
Hope premiered in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where its scale, intensity and genre chaos became a major talking point. After the eerie dread of The Wailing, Na’s return with a 160-minute Korean sci-fi monster epic feels like exactly the kind of ambitious cinema that refuses to behave.
For fans of sci-fi movies, Hope looks like a wild theatrical ride: part police investigation, part creature feature, part alien catastrophe and part cosmic horror. The trailer does not promise calm answers. It promises panic, blood, mystery and the terrifying possibility that the village of Hope may be the first stop in something far larger.
Hope opens in theaters on September 9, 2026.
