After months of speculation and anticipation, the trailer for Wes Anderson’s upcoming film, The Phoenician Scheme, has officially dropped, courtesy of Focus Features. The film will receive a limited theatrical release on May 30, followed by a wider rollout on June 6.
Though some early buzz suggested that Anderson’s next project might be a more intimate, smaller-scale story, the trailer quickly proves otherwise. The director is once again working with a sprawling, A-list cast, featuring Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera, Bill Murray, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, and Hope Davis.
Set within the espionage genre — a new territory for Anderson — the film explores a father-daughter dynamic at the heart of a global crisis. Del Toro stars as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of Europe’s wealthiest men, while Threapleton plays his daughter, Sister Liesl. Michael Cera appears as her tutor, Bjorn Lund. All three characters become entangled in a high-stakes international affair tied to the family’s powerful business empire.
Notably, The Phoenician Scheme wrapped production in June 2024, and despite earlier reports, Anderson’s longtime collaborator Robert Yeoman is credited as the cinematographer after all. The visual style, judging by the trailer, remains unmistakably Andersonian — vibrant, symmetrical, and intricately detailed.
Also on board is Roman Coppola, co-writing the script alongside Anderson. This isn’t their first collaboration; the duo previously teamed up for The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom. Interestingly, the script for The Phoenician Scheme was written around the same time as those earlier films, back in the late 2000s, adding a retro-authenticity to its tone and structure. The release follows Anderson’s 2023 film Asteroid City and his Oscar-winning short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which premiered on Netflix in 2024. With a rare creative freedom in Hollywood, Anderson continues to deliver deeply personal projects, often with major stars agreeing to pay cuts simply to be part of his cinematic worlds.
Known for titles like The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson is a filmmaker whose attention to detail rewards repeat viewings. And now, with The Phoenician Scheme, he adds espionage to his ever-growing visual universe — still full of whimsy, but with a sharper edge.
