Jacob Elordi is in early talks to replace Paul Mescal, who was previously set to star in Ridley Scott’s upcoming film. Paul Mescal just recently starred in Scott’s second installment of the iconic Gladiator.

The film is an adaptation of Peter Heller’s 2012 apocalyptic novel The Dog Stars, with the script written by Mark L. Smith and Christopher Wilkinson. It centers on a civilian pilot who lives on an abandoned airbase with his dog and an ex-Marine during the middle of a devastating pandemic. The pilot’s radio from his 1956 Cessna picks up a random transmission offering hope for a better life.

Smith and Cliff Roberts serve as producers on the film as part of Scott’s Scott Free banner.

The Gladiator II director stated last month that Mescal’s departure from the film was to be expected because he is working with Sam Mendes on a four-film Beatles project. “Paul is actually stacked up, doing the Beatles next,” Scott said at the time. “So I may have to let him go.”

Elordi is most famously known as bad boy Nate Jacobs in HBO’s Euphoria, but he is also known for films such as Saltburn, Priscilla, and Oh, Canada. He is set to star in the Amazon Prime Video series The Narrow Road to the Deep North. His upcoming films include Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights alongside Margot Robbie and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein on Netflix.