Will Poulter Wages a Brutal Battle in New Images From A24’s ‘Warfare’

Alex Garland showed off the brutal reality of war with his highly acclaimed film Civil War and is now getting ready to do the same with his upcoming film Warfare. The A24 film, co-directed by Garland and Ray Mendoza, tells the personal story of Mendoza, a real-life Iraq War veteran. Ahead of its expected release in 2025, Entertainment Weekly has dropped a slew of new images from the film depicting the brutal, gritty nature that Garland’s projects are known for.

The images show off a battalion of U.S. Navy Seals during the war and depict the stars of the film. This includes Mendoza himself, who will be played by Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. Also seen in the new images are shots of the rest of the A-list cast playing soldiers, including Will Poulter, Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, and Noah Centineo. Another key role, that of a soldier named Elliot who gets severely wounded, will be played by Cosmo Jarvis. The images include general scenes of life as a soldier, while also showing off more action-heavy shots like clearing a street of enemies. The film is a “visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it,” according to a synopsis from A24, and from these images, it seems like the film won’t pull any punches.

The images depict the graphic, true reality of war, something that Garland and Mendoza were cognizant of. “There aren’t huge character arcs that I had to monitor, but I still had to track and be respectful to what each guy did that day and make sure I don’t mix them up,” Mendoza told EW. “Kit Connor, for example, plays the young new guy in the story. So I interviewed these [real] guys and talked about, ‘How did you feel? What were you thinking?’ Even some of the regrets that we have from that day.”

Garland Was Heavily Focused on ‘Warfare’s Technical Aspects

While Mendoza focused on the human aspect, Mendoza focused on the filmmaking aspect of Warfare. “[The film] uses the traditional grammar of cinema: closeups, mids, wides, push-ins, shots wrapping around actors,” Garland told EW. “It is a continuous action … so it’s not shooting everything in one take, but it is real-time. It opened up the possibility, in a strange way, to stage something almost as if it’s theater.”

Garland and Mendoza directed Warfare from a script they co-wrote, and this will mark Garland’s third A24 project. The film is produced by Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich for DNA Films; the production company has collaborated on almost all of Garland’s films, including Civil War, Ex Machina, and 28 Days Later. Peter Rice also serves as a producer on the film.

Warfare will be released in 2025. Garland’s prior film, Civil War, is streaming now on Max.

Watch Civil War