Josh O’Connor’s next movie after Challengers is poised to extend his long-running Rotten Tomatoes streak. After starring in Luca Guadagnino’s celebrated tennis film alongside Zendaya and Mike Faist, the 33-year-old British actor has several highly-anticipated upcoming projects coming up. O’Connor first rose to prominence by appearing in an episode of Doctor Who season 7 in 2013 as Piotr. Since then, nearly all of his films and television shows have been critically acclaimed.
O’Connor recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for his impressive portrayal of Prince Charles in the renowned Netflix series The Crown. Some of O’Connor’s other notable works include the critically acclaimed 2021 romantic drama God’s Own Country, which earned a near-perfect 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, and La Chimera (2023), a fascinating period drama about a group of archaeologists that was widely celebrated among critics. Challengers is among O’Connor’s most notable works with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89%.
Josh O’Connor’s next film will be The History of Sound, which is a period piece that is currently in post-production and is expected to be released in 2025. O’Connor will play David alongside Paul Mescal’s Lionel, an acting duo that is highly anticipated on face value alone. Similar to O’Connor, Mescal has also mostly appeared in critically acclaimed films and television shows, the most recent being the celebrated All of Us Strangers (2023) alongside Andrew Scott. Mescal was nominated for Best Actor at the 2023 Oscars for his role in Aftersun.
The History of Sound is directed by Oliver Hermanus, director of the Oscar-nominated period drama Living (2022) starring Bill Nighy. O’Connor’s David and Mescal’s Lionel are two young men living through World War I who record the lives of the people around them. While there is not much information currently available about The History of Sound’s plot, David and Lionel are expected to be romantically involved. The History of Sound would become O’Connor’s twelfth straight Rotten Tomatoes Fresh movie if it meets its high expectations.
Similar to Josh O’Connor’s character in Challengers, his role as David is expected to have some romantic tensions with another male character, Lionel (Mescal). O’Connor has portrayed several LGBTQ+ people in previous works, including in his guest appearances on the critically acclaimed series Peaky Blinders. This trend continued in God’s Own Country and the lesser-known short film The Color of His Hair (2017). If The History of Sound is anything like the quality of God’s Own Country, O’Connor’s remarkable Rotten Tomatoes streak will surely continue.