A24’s The Drama Trailer Dares You to Pretend Robert Pattinson and Zendaya Have No Rizz

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya are two of the most attractive people in Hollywood. And one’s wedding day is such an important event, an event that involves so many professional beauticians and photographers, that even schlubs look like stars for a bit. So why in the world do Pattinson and Zendaya look so weird in the trailer for their upcoming film, The Drama?

Set to the ’90s earworm “I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis, the trailer largely features the soon-to-be newlyweds played by Zendaya and Pattinson shooting their engagement photos. When the photographer tries to get the duo to warm up, she asks them what they like about one another, to which they respond with sweet nothings. Yet every couple of seconds, we see images suggesting something deeper and darker going on between the two, including shots of Zendaya slapping Pattinson while in bed, and the two starring at each other in fear. As a result, the incredibly charismatic couple look stiff and weird.

The trailer isn’t giving away the reason for the disconnect, which likely be the focus of The Drama. Movies about marriages have taught us that all sorts of things can go wrong on the way to matrimony, whether it be feuding parties (Bride Wars, You Are Cordially Invited), interlopers interrupting (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Palm Springs), or whatever the heck happened in Very Bad Things.

All possibilities are on the table for The Drama, given the force behind the camera. Not only is The Drama an A24 film produced by Ari Aster, a guy who really loves stories about things going horribly wrong, but it’s directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli. Borgli specializes in high-concept films that go to absurd places, as demonstrated by his English-language debut, Dream Scenario. Dream Scenario starred Nicolas Cage as a nondescript man who somehow started appearing in the dreams of other people, making him a minor celebrity.

For most American moviegoers, Dream Scenario gives us our best idea of what The Drama can be, for better or worse. Although that film had a fantastic performance from Cage and some compelling visuals, it devolved into a fairly trite comment upon cancel culture, falling well short of the premise’s potential.

Will The Drama be able to avoid that film’s mistakes? The stars’ recent work provides no clear path. Although Pattinson and Zendaya are two of the most compelling actors working today, and both will appear together soon in both Dune: Part Three and The Odyssey, not everything has hit. Zendaya already did a tense relationship drama with Malcolm & Marie, alongside Pattinson’s Tenet co-star John David Washington—a film roundly mocked by viewers and then forgotten. Pattinson appeared as another husband in a doomed relationship in Lynn Ramsay’s Die My Love, but reception to that film has been very mixed.

Yet even in a bad movie, Pattinson and Zendaya have enough star power to draw an audience. Will that audience come, even if the couple is trying to be as weird as possible? We’ll find out when The Drama hits theaters.

The Drama releases April 3, 2026.