Anya Taylor-Joy Is Having The Dinner Date Of Her Life In The Menu Trailer

In a new trailer for The Menu, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are fighting to survive in an immersive dining experience where the stakes aren’t entirely clear, but it’s heavily implied they might be the next course. As the trailer opens, Hoult and Taylor-Joy, as Tyler and Margot, respectively, are on a boat ride to the exclusive island restaurant “Hawthorne” headed by a celebrity chef named Chef Slowik, played by Ralph Fiennes at his inscrutably threatening best. While Margot seems to be approaching the night with her trademark wide-eyed gaze, Tyler is clearly only there to collect some pics for the ‘gram.

Things are ominous from the jump, despite the gorgeously plated amuse-bouches. The door to Hawthorne swings shut on the wealthy clientele who are now at Slowik’s culinary mercy. Before long, guns are firing, fingers are getting chopped, and the guests are running through the forest being hunted for sport. This might just be a fantasy film for anyone who has ever worked back of house in a restaurant during brunch, but Margot has strong last woman standing energy.

Who is in The Menu Cast?

Taylor-Joy and Hoult are Margot and Tyler, of course, and Fiennes is Chef Slowik, Michelin star cook and possible psychopathic murderer. Peter Grosz is his sommelier, Rachel Trautmann another chef in the sinister kitchen, and Mel Fair ferries the group to their potential doom. John Leguizamo is playing a familiar role as a movie star, and the rest of the cast of either elite spenders or belligerent cooks includes Janet McTeer, Judith Light, Hong Chau, Rob Yang, Aimee Carrero, Mark St. Cyr, Arturo Castro, Paul Adelstein, Reed Birney, Christina Brucato, Adam Aalderks, and Rebecca Koon.

The movie is produced by Searchlight Pictures and directed by Mark Mylod, known for his work on Entourage, Once Upon a Time, and Game of Thrones. He is also an executive producer on Succession.

What is The Menu about?

Tyler and Margot are a young couple visiting a remote island to eat at Hawthorne, where Chef Slowik, a celebrity known for “telling stories” more than making food has quite a night planned for them. At first, the 12 guests are served actual morsels to tempt the palate, but subsequent courses are much more psychological. Slowik isn’t just giving them a meal, he’s playing a game and he tells them that this game is “trying to guess what the overarching theme of the entire meal is going to be.”

“You won't know till the end,” he promises in a threatening voice in the trailer.

He adds, “This guest list, this entire evening, has been painstakingly planned.”

Slowik has clearly organized his kitchen, as all of the workers are on board for whatever is planned and are later seen chasing the guests in one of the night’s later games. The game ends, it seems, as the diners are whittled down through the night. But we still don’t know who will survive.

When is The Menu’s release date?

The Menu is premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September will be available on November 18 in theaters.