Civil Warfeatures quite a fewactors who have worked with director Alex Garland on previous projects. After beginning his career as a novelist and screenwriter, Garland made his directorial debut with the 2014 sci-fi movieEx Machina, which he followed with the Jeff VanderMeer adaptationAnnihilationin 2018 and original movies,MenandCivil Warin 2022 and 2024 respectively. He ALSO created, wrote, and directed the 2020 FX miniseriesDevs, which ran for one season comprising eight episodes. Although Garland has a growing filmography, he does not tend to work with the same lead actors multiple times, however.
After Garland cast Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander inEx Machina, Natalie Portman inAnnihilation, and Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear inMen,the director tapped Kirsten Dunst to be at the center ofCivil War. While he usually collaborates with new actors for his headliners, he has made a habit of featuring of recruiting the same actors in supporting roles, such as Oscar Isaac inEx MachinaandAnnihilation. With this, the ensemble ofCivil Warsimilarly features many familiar faces, particularly those from theDevscast.
6Cailee Spaeny
First Collaboration: Devs, Episode 1 (2020)
2024 breakout star Cailee Spaenyfirstcollaborated with Alex Garland onDevs, in which she was cast as sound wave specialist Lyndon, a character she played across all eight episodes of the miniseries. Before her work onDevs, she had played supporting characters in the prominent box office disappointmentsBad Times at the El RoyaleandPacific Rim: Uprising, though she had also held a small role in the Oscar-winning Adam McKay movieVicein 2018.
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In betweenDevsandCivil War, however, Spaeny starts to get noticed in Hollywood. In addition to a five-episode stint in the celebrated HBO crime dramaMare of Easttown,she played the title role in Sofia Coppola’s 2023 Priscilla Presley biopicPriscilla.When it came time to reunite with Garland, she was tasked with an even bigger role — playing wet-behind-the-ears photographer Jessie, who accompanies journalists Lee Smith (Dunst) and Joel (Wagner Moura) on their dangerous journey across a war-torn America.
Civil Warwas the first box office splash for Spaeny in 2024, earning $122.5 million against its $50 million budget, which made itthe most expensive movie ever produced by A24. However, it was not the last Spaeny hit of the year. She went on to star in the blockbuster sci-fi horror sequelAlien: Romulusas the lead character Rain Carradine. That movie has so far grossed $342.5 million worldwide against its $80 million budget, becoming the eleventh highest-grossing movie of the year at the time of writing.
5Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman was another main cast member ofDevs, havingplayed Amaya CEO Forest on all eight episodes of the miniseries.However, the star was a better-known quantity before taking on the role. He made a name for himself as a comic actor, particularly for his performance as Ron Swanson as a series regular on all seven seasons of the NBC mockumentarysitcomParks and Recreation.Devswas part of a turn toward more dramatic television roles that now also includes his Emmy-winning turn onThe Last of Us.
Other recent roles have skewed more dramatic for Offerman, however. He played Dave the Plumber in 2023’sOrigin, which was directed by Ava DuVernay, and starred in five episodes of Hulu’s biographical miniseriesPam & Tommyas Uncle Miltie. While he has also held comic roles in the meantime in projects includingA League of Their Own,The Resort,Party Down, andDicks: The Musical,Civil Warcontinues this turn toward more dramatic characters overall.
HisCivil Warrole takes his authoritative presence fromDevsand adds even more layers, seeing him portray the besieged president of a divided nation.
HisCivil Warrole takes his authoritative presence fromDevsand adds even more layers, seeing him portray the besieged president of a divided nation. So far, Offerman is not set to reunite with Garland on any upcoming projects. However, he will be holding roles in projects that exist in a wide variety of genres, includingMission: Impossible 8,The Smurfs Movie, the Dennis Quaid thrillerSovereign, and the teen epilepsy dramaUnder the Lights.
4Karl Glusman
Karl Glusman also worked with Alex Garland onDevs, playing Sergei, the boyfriend of Sonoya Mizuno’s lead character Lily Chan. Glusman appeared in four episodes of the miniseries, spanning from the premiere through the finale. Before taking on that role, his star had been rising as he had been taking on more and more prominent projects since his onscreen career began in 2008.
This included appearing in Gaspar Noé’sLove, Roland Emmerich’sStonewall, Nicolas Winding Refn’sThe Neon Demon, and Tom Ford’sNocturnal Animalsas well as starring opposite Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup in Netflix’sGypsy. AfterDevs,he starred opposite Tom Hanks inGreyhound, Maika Monroe inWatcher, and Austin Butler and Tom Hardy inThe Bikeridersbefore returning to the Alex Garland fold inCivil War. For the director’s 2024 outing, Glusman played an unnamed spotter who was fighting in the titular war.
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The role, while minor, fleshed out the world around the main characters and emphasized the life-or-death stakes of the conflict at the center of the story. AfterCivil War, Karl Glusman is set to appear in two motion pictures, neither of which features Alex Garland’s involvement. The first isEenie Meanie, which stars Samara Weaving and follows an ex-getaway driver. The second is the thrillerPretty Thing, which stars Alicia Silverstone and follows an older woman with a younger male stalker.
3Jin Ha
Jin Ha was another series regular onDevs, playing Lily’s ex-boyfriend Jamie,a cybersecurity expert, in all eight episodes of the Alex Garland miniseries.Although the actor had a robust stage career beforehand,Devswas one of his first major onscreen acting performances after a series of short films, a live recording ofJesus Christ Superstarin concert, and a supporting role in the Steve Coogan filmHot Air, which also starred Neve Campbell andBones and All’s Taylor Russell.
Since the end ofDevs,Jin Ha has gone on to star in the popularApple TV+ seriesPachinko, which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and a BAFTA. Afterward, he returned to Alex Garland’s orbit to play a supporting role as an unnamed sniper inCivil War. Unlike Nick Offerman’s role in the movie, which was quite close to hisDevsrole, Ha’s character allowed him to spread his wings and show off his range as an actor, exploring other sides of his personality onscreen.
So far, the actor has no further collaborations with Alex Garland set for the near future. However,he is currently starring in the ongoingPachinkoseason 2(reprising his original role as Solomon Baek) andOnly Murders in the Buildingseason 4 (as new character Marshall P. Pope), cementing his status as a television star to watch.
2Stephen McKinley Henderson
As with the majority of the returning Garland performers inCivil War, Stephen McKinley Henderson first worked with the filmmaker onDevs. Henderson was likewise part of the main cast, portraying Amaya employee Stewart in all eight episodes.Like Offerman, he had a robust career beforehand, which included multi-episode runs on prominent television titles such asNew Amsterdam,Law & Order, andThe Newsroom, as well as movie roles inManchester by the Sea,Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,Da Sweet Blood of Jesus,Lady Bird,The True Adventures of Wolfboy, and more.
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His most prominent post-Devsrole by far was playing the House Atreides Master of Assassins Thufir Hawat in 2021’sDune: Part One, which became the twelfth highest-grossing movie of the year and won six Oscars. However, he prepared for his return to Garland’s universe by taking on a supporting role as a therapist in the A24 movieBeau is Afraidin 2023. InCivil War, Garland harnessed Henderson’s screen presence by casting him as Lee’s journalism mentor Sammy, who works forThe New York Times.
While he has not appeared onscreen sinceCivil Warand is not currently set for any further collaborations with Garland,Henderson has a variety of projects coming out soon, including the psychosexual Kate Mara dramaThe Dutchman, Netflix’s Colman Domingo thrillerThe Madness, and the historical dramaDeath by Lightning.
1Sonoya Mizuno
First Collaboration: Ex Machina (2014)
Like every returning Alex Garland cast member inCivil War,Mizuno was a major player inDevs.In fact, she played the lead role on the show, portraying software engineer Lily Chan in all eight episodes opposite the rest of the ensemble cast. However, in addition to her role in the miniseries, Mizuno is the only actor to appear in all fourAlex Garland movies.
Mizuno is the only actor to appear in all four Alex Garland movies.
Her first collaboration with Garland came when she took on the role ofNathan Bateman’s house staff member Kyoko inEx Machina.She was the fourth-billed character behind those of Gleeson, Vikander, and Isaac. Mizuno followed that with a minor role inAnnihilationas a med student named Katie, though she also provided the motion capture performance for the iconic Humanoid entity that appears in the third act of the movie.
$50 million
$122 million
81%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
70%
InMen, which has an even smaller cast than the pared-downEx Machina, she does not appear onscreen, but she does provide the voice of a police operator. Finally, inCivil War, she appears as British reporter Anya, who is shadowing the Western Forces. While she is likewise not currently set to appear in any upcoming Alex Garland works,it seems highly likely that he will continue to feature her— even in a minor capacity, in future projects, continuing his habit of consistently casting her across his film and television work.
Civil War
Civil War is a 2024 action thriller from writer and director Alex Garland. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, Civil War takes place in the near future and shows the United States entering a new Civil War after California and Texas attempt to separate from the country.
