Emma MacKay is set to star alongside Glen Powell (The Running Man) and Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) in the new mystery box movie from J.J. Abrams. The actress is best known for starring in Netflix’s Sex Education, which wrapped up its four-season run last year.

Plot details are being kept under wraps (big surprise). It was previously speculated that the film would involve time travel, but sources have said that’s not the case. Damn you, mystery box! The project is expected to kick off production next year with Abrams directing from a script he wrote. He will also produce through his Bad Robot banner. This will mark Abrams’ first feature film since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which was released in 2019.

Since breaking onto the scene with Sex Education, MacKay has appeared in Death on the Nile, played Emily Brontë in Frances O’Conno’s Emily, and was featured as Physicist Barbie in Barbie, the billion-dollar behemoth.

MacKay has several projects coming up, including Ella McKay from director James L. Brooks. She stars as the title character, an idealistic young politician who juggles familial issues and a challenging work life while preparing to take over the job of her mentor, the state’s longtime incumbent governor. The film also stars Woody Harrelson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayo Edebiri, Albert Brooks, Kumail Nanjiani, Rebecca Hall, and more.

She’s also starring in Hot Milk, an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s novel of the same name. The film follows Rose (Fiona Shaw) and her daughter Sofia (MacKay) as they travel to a seaside resort in Spain to consult with a physician who may hold the cure to Rose’s mystery illness. However, “in the sultry atmosphere of this sun-bleached town, Sofia, who has been trapped by her mother’s illness all her life, finally starts to shed her inhibitions, enticed by the persuasive charms of enigmatic traveller Ingrid (Vicky Krieps). Sofia’s increased freedom becomes too much for her controlling mother, and as the hot sun beats down, their relationship simmers with pent-up resentments and bitterness, threatening to tear the fragile threads that hold them together, and leading them to a dramatic conclusion.“

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