While still coasting down from the hype around Jordan Peele‘s neo-Western sci-fi horror film Nope that premiered just last year, more news is coming in that the train of now trademark Peele horror is not stopping anytime soon. Per a report from Variety, the director’s next upcoming project has appeared on Universal Pictures’ official website with an exact release date of December 25, 2024, on Christmas Day.
Universal Pictures, which helmed Peele’s first three films Get Out, Us, and Nope, continues to help orchestrate the director’s slate of groundbreaking horror projects. Its release date calendar now includes a feature simply called “Untitled Fourth Film Directed by Jordan Peele”, and it’s chosen a rather special premiere date of Christmas Day at the end of next year. Whether that pertains to the project’s theme or plot remains to be seen. In following with tradition of his other films, Peele is staying very tight-lipped on the premise, casting, working title, and even the genre of his newest project. Rather than tease fans with hints of any kind, Peele prefers to keep the mystery around his work entirely obscure, a rather clever and underused tactic in the horror genre. In fact, that’s about the only notion the audience can go on until then, that there is destined to be a horror element blended in somehow.
There is also another feature on Universal’s official page called an “untitled Monkeypaw film”, which references Peele’s production company. It’s set for release a bit earlier on September 27, 2024, overtaking the spot of a previous unnamed animated feature. No details have been released yet on that project either, including whether Peele himself is directing it.
As the horror niche in cinema continues to experience a new era of popularity with noticeably more original content and subsequently one box office success after another, Peele can count himself among the unique storytellers that has truly helped bolster and diversify the genre. His breakout feature film Get Out (2017), which perfectly kept its jaw-dropping twist a secret until its premiere, led to universal acclaim and became a cult phenomenon. With an impeccable cast it intertwined classic, hair-raising horror elements that built tension seamlessly to a fever pitch, with an abundance of “look in the mirror” social commentary that will keep the film very relevant for years to come.
His follow-up films Us (2019) and Nope (2022) kept to his trademark aesthetic, while the latter incorporated a more Neo-Western blend that also landed well with audiences. Now with at least one more major feature set for Christmas next year, Peele undoubtedly has many more stories to tell that will continue to contribute to the horror genre.
