J.J. Abrams Returns to Original Sci-Fi with THE GREAT First Look at CinemaCon

After years of steering massive franchises, J.J. Abrams is stepping back into original storytelling with The Great Beyond, and the first footage shown at CinemaCon has people leaning in with curiosity.

Warner Bros. revealed what Abrams has been cooking up, marking his first time directing since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and this time, he’s not playing in someone else’s sandbox.

“I love franchises, but felt like I needed to get back to telling original stories,” Abrams said onstage Tuesday at CinemaCon.

That intention is clear from the jump. The footage doesn’t hand over answers, it invites questions. It opens on an early-generation computer as someone types out a passage from H.G. Wells: “There is, though I do not not know how there there is, or how it may be, another world out of sight and sound.”

From there, the preview shifts into something more emotional and mysterious. A couple, played by Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega, seem to be searching for something bigger than their current reality.

The voiceover puts it plainly: “The world you think you know the limits of, you can’t even begin to fathom.” And whatever they’re chasing, it feels like they might actually find it.

Plot details are still locked down tight, but the tone leans into that classic Abrams curiosity-driven storytelling. There’s a mix of wonder, tension, and the sense that reality might not be as stable as we think.

The cast around Powell and Ortega includes Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Merritt Wever, and Samuel L. Jackson rounding things out. Abrams wrote and directed the film, producing alongside Tommy Gormley through Bad Robot.

The movie is set to hit theaters on November 13. I like that Abrams is stepping into unfamiliar territory again and telling an original story. It looks like it’ll pull audiences into something strange, emotional, and maybe a little mind-bending.