Life goes on, even for the only survivor of the world’s deadliest adult film production. But sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you want to move on, not even when you move across the country to to pursue your Hollywood dreams. Sometimes the past doesn’t let you go without a fight. That’s the battle that awaits Mia Goth from the third film in the writer-director Ti West’s X horror franchise. The first full trailer for MaXXXine promises the only starring role Maxine Minx can definitely count on is the same one as before. It’s the leading part in a real-life slasher flick.

A24’s ready to let the cameras roll on another installment in the popular X franchise. The third film will serve as a direct sequel to the franchise’s original entry from 2022. (Its follow-up Pearl was a prequel.) This time the series is headed to the bright lights of L.A. in 1985, as our young heroine pursues her lifelong ambition to be famous. But that’s also where big hair and big dreams will go up against a past she can’t escape. Here’s the official synopsis for MaXXXine from A24 to make the trailer clearer:

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.

Mia Goth as Maxine sits at a vanity table looking backwards in MaXXXine
A24

As you might have noticed from this fantastic trailer, the film boasts an absolutely stacked cast. In addition to Goth the movie also features: Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon.

Damn. Now that’s a cast. And this is also an incredible premise for a franchise that keeps finding ways to offer fresh new horrors without abandoning the spirit that makes these movies so good. That’s why even if Maxine never escapes her path, Mia Goth’s future looks brighter than ever.

A24

MaXXXine will step into the Hollywood spotlight when the film comes to theaters this summer on July 5, 2024.

Originally published on April 8, 2024.