Ryan Gosling has dropped out of the Daniels' highly anticipated follow-up to their Oscar-winning juggernaut Everything Everywhere All at Once, leaving Universal Pictures scrambling to recast what was supposed to be one of 2027's biggest releases.
The exit comes just months before production was set to begin on the untitled project, which the directing duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have been developing since their multiverse epic swept the Academy Awards. While Universal declined to comment on the specifics, sources close to the production cite the ever-vague "scheduling conflicts" - Hollywood's preferred euphemism for everything from creative differences to cold feet.
Here's what makes this particularly interesting: The Daniels don't make conventional movies. Their brand of organized chaos requires actors willing to surrender themselves completely to the weird. Michelle Yeoh rode that chaos to a Best Actress Oscar. Ke Huy Quan did the same for Supporting Actor. Gosling, fresh off his own Oscar nomination for Barbie, seemed like the perfect fit for whatever madness they were cooking up next.
But the departure raises questions about the project itself. Is this the typical Hollywood game of chicken over money and billing? Or did Gosling actually read the script and think, "I'm not ready to wear a fanny pack with googly eyes for six months"? We may never know.
What we do know is that Universal is now facing a significant delay. The Daniels work in a highly specific register, and not every A-lister can pull off their particular brand of existential slapstick. They need someone who can oscillate between profound emotional depth and absolute ridiculousness, often in the same scene. That's a surprisingly short list.
The smart money says they'll go younger - someone hungry enough to take the risk, talented enough to handle the tonal shifts, and available enough to start shooting in six months. In Hollywood, nobody knows anything - except me, occasionally. And I'd bet on Paul Mescal or Glen Powell getting the call.
Meanwhile, Gosling moves on to whatever convinced him to walk away from what could have been his second consecutive Oscar-nominated performance. His loss, probably. The Daniels have a perfect track record so far. Why bet against them now?
