Sydney Sweeney's Sci-Fi Adaptation On Netflix Replaces Her 10% RT Disaster

Published Sep 1, 2026, 6:07 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While Sydney Sweeney’s first swing at launching a major Hollywood blockbuster franchise ended in disaster, her upcoming sci-fi movie for Netflix might well redeem this failure in 2027. Sydney Sweeney’s career is a fascinating one, as much for its failures as its successes. At only 20 years old, the star had already appeared in acclaimed shows like the iconic murder mysteries Sharp Objects and Pretty Little Liars and the underrated Netflix dramedy Everything Sucks. Her breakout role came in 2019’s controversial teen drama Euphoria, while 2021’s The White Lotus cemented her status as an emerging star to watch. However, her movie career since then has been anything but stable or predictable. After early roles in streaming releases like The Voyeurs and Night Teeth, Sweeney’s first major Hollywood hit came in 2023’s rom-com Anyone But You. Co-starring Glen Powell, the movie earned a staggering $220 million on a budget of only $25 million. However, Sweeney’s box office success came to a halt almost immediately a few months later when 2024’s Marvel movie Madame Web flopped disastrously. Despite a superb cast including Dakota Johnson, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, and Sweeney, Madame Web made a mere $100 million on a budget of around the same amount and earned laughably bad reviews. Sweeney’s first attempt to launch a Hollywood blockbuster franchise was officially a failure, and 2027’s upcoming Netflix sci-fi epic Gundam marks her first attempt to course correct. Netflix's Gundam Can Give Sydney Sweeney A Big-IP Franchise After Madame Web Didn’t Of course, Gundam isn’t Sweeney’s first film since Madame Web. Far from it, as the ever-employed Sweeney has in fact starred in Immaculate, Eden, Christy, and The Housemaid in the intervening two years. Nevertheless, Netflix’s upcoming Gundam does still represent the star’s first foray into big-budget blockbuster film making since the 2024 disaster. In terms of pure name recognition, Sweeney likely seems to many readers to be the best-known star of Madame Web, second, perhaps, to the 50 Shades of Grey franchise star Johnson. However, Merced’s roles in Alien: Romulus and Superman mean she has not one, but two movies that earned over $100 million to her name since the 2024 flop, while O’Connor’s only two movie roles since Madame Web, 2024’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and 2026’s Scream 7, were both also financial hits. Thus, as strange as it may seem given Sweeney’s massive public profile, the A-list star is lagging behind in terms of box office success. To be fair, Sweeney scored a huge sleeper hit in late 2025 when the Freida McFadden adaptation, The Housemaid, earned an astounding $400 million at the box office, prompting the studio to immediately green-light a sequel that will soon see Sweeney reprise her title role in the psychological thriller franchise. Why Netflix's Gundam Could Still Go Horribly Wrong This was an unambiguous win for Sweeney, but the critically acclaimed movie’s success doesn’t make Netflix’s upcoming Gundam any less crucial in terms of the star’s future. After all, while The Housemaid earned $400 million on a budget of $35 million, Sweeney’s 2025 boxing biopic Christy earned a woeful $2 million on a budget of $15 million. Meanwhile, 2024’s historical survival movie Eden made $2.8 million on a budget somewhere between $35—55 million. Thus, the ambitious live-action space opera Gundam from Netflix is now a pivotal make-or-break movie for Sweeney. Luckily, the fact that the movie is based on the historically popular anime series Mobile Suit Gundam bodes well. Similarly, Sweeney’s Gundam co-star Noah Centineo has numerous major releases on the horizon in Street Fighter and John Rambo. That said, his own last blockbuster, 2022’s Black Adam, was almost as big a disaster as Madame Web, meaning Sweeney’s Gundam is not guaranteed to be the Netflix hit she needs when the movie arrives in 2026. Director Jim Mickle Producers Linda Moran, Cale Boyter, Matthew Jenkins, Noah Centineo, Sydney Sweeney, Makoto Asanuma, Ali Mendes, Naohiro Ogata