Adam Wingard’s 2026 movie calendar release already looked like a welcome return to the sharp, nasty action-horror of his earlier work. The new trailer for Onslaught promises genetically engineered killers, Adria Arjona with a rifle and the kind of desert carnage that feels at home in the “survival thriller” section of a 1980s video store. Now Wingard has revealed that the new A24 movie carries a secret connection to one of his best-loved cult films, and I am suddenly even more interested.
During an appearance at San Diego Comic Con (via World of Reel), Adam Wingard confirmed a fan theory that Onslaught takes place in the same town as his 2014 thriller The Guest and revolves around another branch of the secret military program that created Dan Stevens’ near-unstoppable soldier, David Collins. Wingard said the connection is strong enough that Onslaught could “technically” be called a sequel, even though it does not continue the same characters’ story directly.
That is exactly the kind of sequel connection I can get behind. The Guest left plenty of room for David’s story to continue, but making Onslaught a conventional follow-up could also explain away too much of the original movie’s mystery. Expanding the program allows Wingard and returning writer Simon Barrett to revisit that world without simply retracing David’s bloody path.
Onslaught follows an Army sniper played by Arjona who must protect her young daughter after a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers escapes into the desert. The shared program immediately gives those attackers a more interesting history. They are not random laboratory monsters invented for a new action movie. They may be the latest products of the same machinery that turned David into such a charming nightmare.
The connection also fits a larger pattern running through Wingard and Barrett’s collaborations. In the popular V/H/S/2 anthology segment “Phase I Clinical Trials,” Wingard plays Herman, a man who receives a prosthetic eye after an accident and begins seeing terrifying figures around him. The experimental eye comes from a company called KPG, a name that also appears in You’re Next and The Guest.
That recurring company has always felt like a small connective thread between their movies rather than the foundation of a traditional cinematic universe. Still, knowing Onslaught returns to the same military program suggests Wingard and Barrett may have been quietly building a shared mythology for years. KPG could be the shadowy corporate tissue linking experimental technology, violent government programs and some deeply unfortunate test subjects.
The connection becomes even stranger because Stevens appears in Onslaught, though he is reportedly not returning as David. Instead, the actor plays a German scientist who may be involved in creating the new “perfect soldiers.” The trailer offers only a quick look, and Stevens is buried beneath enough prosthetics to make him almost unrecognizable.
That casting feels like a deliberate wink. Stevens previously played the program’s weapon, and now the horror scene stealer may be one of the men responsible for producing its next generation. It rewards The Guest fans without forcing the film to be a real sequel.
Wingard has also described Onslaught as part of a loose trilogy with The Guest and You’re Next. Arjona’s mother appears to share Erin’s survival instincts, while the military conspiracy pulls directly from David’s world. Add KPG’s earlier appearances, and the movie begins to look more and more like the latest room inside a strange house Wingard and Barrett have been constructing since their early horror days.
Check out the newest trailer below!
Onslaught reaches theaters Sept. 4. I still want a proper return for David Collins someday, preferably with that synth score rattling the walls again. Until then, a brutal desert thriller secretly expanding the world’s mythology sounds far more interesting than a sequel built only to repeat what worked the first time.
The Guest, if you haven’t already seen it or wish to revisit it, is streaming with a Shudder subscription.