Michael Fassbender’s 156-Minute Sci-Fi Film Hope Becomes a Streaming Hit

Michael Fassbender’s career has never stayed inside one genre. He earned two Academy Award nominations, for 12 Years a Slave and Steve Jobs. He also left a mark on science fiction as Magneto in Fox’s X-Men movies and as the enigmatic Replicant David in 2017’s Alien: Covenant. One of his newest and arguably wildest projects is now on its way to becoming a streaming hit.

Hope is a 2026 Korean sci-fi action epic with Fassbender in its ensemble cast. It became available to rent and purchase digitally on Monday, October 12th. In the weeks since, it has started climbing the charts on platforms like Apple TV and Amazon Video in North America.

The theatrical run was short. Hope played for a few weeks earlier this fall and finished with a domestic gross of just over $8 million and a worldwide total of $46 million. Streaming now looks like a second life for the film.

Who made it

Na Hong-jin directed and wrote Hope. He first drew international attention with 2008’s The Chaser and 2016’s The Wailing.

The film also reunites Fassbender with his wife, Alicia Vikander, who starred in Ex Machina and Tomb Raider. It is their first onscreen collaboration in more than a decade. The two met on the set of the 2016 drama The Light Between Oceans.

What it’s about

NEON’s official description sets up the story this way:

In the remote South Korean village of Hope Harbor, police chief Bum-seok and officer Sung-ae are called to investigate a mysterious creature wreaking havoc on the community. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.

Fassbender and Vikander play vital roles in that tragedy, though I won’t spoil how. They aren’t the film’s only draw. The action sequences, including a lengthy ordeal set on horseback, have to be seen to be believed.

The cast

• Taylor Russell (Bones and All) as Ai’dovor
• Cameron Britton (Spider-Noir) as Va’migere
• Hwang Jung-min (You Are My Sunshine) as Ko Bum-seok
• Zo In-sung (Something Happened in Bali) as Ko Sung-ki
• Jung Ho-yeon (Squid Game) as Im Sung-ae

Fassbender and Vikander round out the ensemble.

From Cannes to streaming

Hope became one of the most talked-about releases of 2026. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and competed for the Palme d’Or. It did not win. The award went to Fjord, led by Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. The buzz kept growing anyway.

The film got its own panel at this summer’s San Diego Comic-Con. NEON then gave it the widest domestic theatrical release for a Korean film since 2019’s Parasite. Hope opened in over 1,500 theaters and was offered in premium formats including 4DX, Dolby, ScreenX and D-Box.

Source: Polygon