Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali Face the End of the World in Leave the World Behind Trailer: Watch
Netflix has debuted a new teaser trailer for Sam Esmail’s new thriller, Leave the World Behind, starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke. Watch the clip for the movie, executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, below.
Written and directed by Esmail, Leave the World Behind stars Roberts and Hawke as a couple who book an idyllic weekend getaway with their children, only for the owner (Ali) and his daughter (Myha’la) to interrupt their vacation in the middle of the night with news of an ominous cyberattack. As the world seemingly comes to an end, the group must band together in order to survive.
Adapted from Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel of the same name, Leave the World Behind is the first fictional film executive produced under the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions banner. It also stars Kevin Bacon, Farrah Mackenzie, and Charlie Evans.
“In the original drafts of the script, I definitely pushed things a lot farther than they were in the film, and President Obama, having the experience he does have, was able to ground me a little bit on how things might unfold in reality,” Esmail recently told Vanity Fair about receiving script notes from the former President. “I am writing what I think is fiction, for the most part, I’m trying to keep it as true to life as possible, but I’m exaggerating and dramatizing. And to hear an ex-president say you’re off by a few details… I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the fuck out of me.”
Leave the World Behind opens in theaters on November 22nd ahead of its December 8th debut on Netflix.
Roberts’ last film was Ticket to Paradise, while Ali is set to star in Marvel’s upcoming Blade reboot, which has been pushed to February 14th, 2025.