MOVIE NEWS – Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez will lead Not Alone, Illumination’s new animated science-fiction romantic comedy about aliens, rockets, and a disastrous attempt at falling in love. The first image has now arrived, while the story follows three tiny extraterrestrial fugitives who turn the lives of a quiet rocket mechanic and a brilliant astro-botanist upside down.
Timothée Chalamet is not escaping science fiction anytime soon. After playing Paul Atreides across Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films, with the final chapter of that trilogy still set for theaters later this year, Chalamet is already moving toward another genre adventure. This time, however, the scale is smaller, stranger, and animated. Illumination and Universal Pictures have officially unveiled Not Alone, a new alien-themed romantic comedy in which Chalamet stars alongside Selena Gomez.
The project was announced during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where its first piece of artwork was also shown. The image keeps its secrets fairly close: two tall, slender figures stand in silhouette, holding hands as three aliens crawl over the Not Alone title. Still, the premise is already clear. Chalamet will voice Joe, an introverted rocket mechanic who lives a quiet life on his own, while Gomez will play Fran, a brilliant astro-botanist working on the world’s first plant-fueled rocket.
Joe and Fran are thrown together while preparing the rocket for its inaugural launch. There are immediate sparks between them, but neither seems especially skilled at romance. Their lives become much more complicated when three tiny, unruly aliens take refuge in Joe’s home. Dunk, Welly, and Shirm are fleeing from an overzealous but deeply incompetent officer named Zandro, and they soon decide that Fran’s rocket may be their only chance to escape safely back to their own world.
Chalamet Is Taking His First Major Animated Lead Role
Not Alone marks a significant new step for Chalamet. While he has previously appeared in an animated project, this will be his first time leading a feature-length animated film. Gomez, by contrast, has more experience in the format after voicing Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania franchise, but Fran appears to be a very different kind of character: not a fairy-tale heroine, but a scientist whose invention becomes the literal engine of the story.
Rob Brydon, Diane Morgan, and Jamie Demetriou will voice the three alien fugitives, while Brett Goldstein has joined the cast as Officer Zandro. Allison Janney and Lamorne Morris are also part of the supporting voice cast, although their roles remain under wraps. Eric Guillon, Claire Dodgson, and Jonathan Del Val are co-directing the film, with Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri producing.
For Illumination, Not Alone is another attempt to build something beyond the studio’s existing franchise empire of Despicable Me, Minions, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The setup already has the studio’s familiar ingredients: family-friendly comedy, a colorful science-fiction world, and small side characters who are almost certainly going to create most of the chaos. But Joe and Fran’s relationship could give it a more openly romantic angle than Illumination’s usual hits. Based on the first official description, the main challenge will not be saving the universe, but getting two romantically awkward people and three runaway aliens to launch a rocket without destroying everything first.
Not Alone is scheduled to open in U.S. theaters on April 16, 2027. The date is familiar territory for Illumination, which has used similar spring release windows for several of its biggest theatrical successes, so Universal is clearly hoping Chalamet, Gomez, and three alien stowaways can become the studio’s next animated crowd-pleaser.
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