Annihilation: Oscar Isaac in talks to costar with Natalie Portman

Oscar Isaac is in talks to reunite with his Ex Machina director for another sci-fi tale. The Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor is circling the chance to re-team with Alex Garland on his adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation, EW has confirmed.

Isaac would star alongside Natalie Portman in the film, which is being written and directed by Garland. It centers on a biologist (Portman) as she embarks on a four-person expedition into Area X, a territory cut off from civilization. While there, she must deal with a mysterious contamination, disappearing colleagues, a deadly animal, and a being known as the Crawler, all while searching for clues regarding her husband’s disappearance.

Isaac will play Portman’s husband, who may not have disappeared at all. The film is also set to star Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jane the Virgin‘s Gina Rodriguez.

Isaac starred in Garland’s Ex Machina with Alicia Vikander and his Force Awakens cohort Domhnall Gleeson. In that film, he played the mysterious owner of a tech company trying to create artificial intelligence. In the latest Star Wars saga, he played ace pilot and Resistance fighter Poe Dameron.

He’ll be seen next as the titular villain in X-Men: Apocalypse, out May 27.