Why The Cast Of Midsommar Looks So Familiar

Hard as it is to believe, barely a year has past since Ari Aster knocked our collective heads off with his beyond unsettling (and utterly perfect) debut feature Hereditary. Even harder to believe is that the boundary-pushing genre guru already has a new movie hitting theaters, and if pre-release feedback is to be believed, Aster has only just begun to mess with our heads.

Aster's latest genre experiment is titled simply Midsommar, and it follows the tale of a young couple who travel to rural Sweden to take part in a small village's mid-summer festival. It's not too long before the seemingly picturesque experience spins into a nightmarish game of one-upmanship at the whim of a pagan cult. While we wait to see if the great and powerful Paimon is in any way involved, it's a safe bet that those of you who've braved the Midsommar trailer picked out a few familiar faces amongst the twisted, horrified cast members within. So if you're wondering why the cast of Midsommar looks so familiar, here's where you might've seen them before.

Like Pugh, the actor who portrays her aloof onscreen boyfriend in Midsommar can absolutely lay claim to the title of "up-and-comer." And we're sincerely hoping that Jack Reynor's harrowing jaunt through Aster's latest hellscape will help raise his star as well, 'cause he's been stealing scenes with surprising regularity over the past five or six years.

He's done so via a string of strong supporting turns in some of the best films in release over that period. Among Reynor's esteemed credits are a hilarious/heartbreaking performance as the directionless big brother to an aspiring rock & roller in 2016's miraculous musical Sing Street. Reynor followed that turn with another crackling performance in Ben Wheatley's ultra-violent gem Free Fire before stepping into the "based on true events" fray of Kathryn Bigelow's criminally underseen Detroit.

If you somehow managed to miss Jack Reynor in those killer flicks, it's entirely likely you know him from the Impossible Planet episode of Amazon's Philip K. Dick-inspired series Electric Dreams. We'd also wager a few too many of you know the actor from his work in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, even if you're not willing to admit having seen that oh so unnecessary addition to the franchise.

While many of his co-stars have already begun plotting successful career arcs on the big screen, William Jackson Harper started plotting his rise with breakout success on the small screen. While the actor is hardly a film neophyte (his was fantastic opposite Adam Driver in Paterson), Harper got his first big break back in 2009 with a key role in the revival of PBS's beloved family-friendly series The Electric Company, which saw him trading songs with none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda. From there, Jackson landed a few blink-and-you'll-miss-him spots on popular series Law & Order, 30 Rock, and The Blacklist.

Of course, Harper's biggest break came in 2016, when he landed one of the lead roles on NBC's afterlife comedy The Good Place, where his scene-stealing work as the perpetually indecisive Chidi Anagonye finds him flexing some serious comedic muscle opposite the likes of Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. While we've all been saddened by the news that The Good Place is coming to an end in the very near future, it's clear that the show has opened more than a few doors for Harper. With Midsommar primed to open quite a few more, we can only hope we'll be seeing the actor's face on screens big and small for years to come.

Speaking of names you probably don't know but should probably start learning, count Austin R. Grant among them. Though the actor has yet to land himself a true breakthrough role, he's been quietly making a name for himself over the past few years behind a series of appearances in a handful of seriously impressive projects. That includes claiming supporting roles in Rob Reiner's underrated 2015 drama Being Charlie, and 2017's marvelous Jeremy Renner vehicle Wind River. Eagle-eyed viewers will likely also recognize Grant from his small screen work on the YouTube Red series Youth & Consequences, and for his one-off appearance in Paramount Network's Kevin Costner starring neo-western Yellowstone.

As it happens, Grant's role as "Hipster Guy" in Midsommar will mark the actor's second collaboration with Ari Aster, who cast Grant as "Stoner Guy #1" in Hereditary. Who knows, if Grant manages to prove his mettle in Midsommar, it's possible Aster might just see fit to cast Grant in a role in his next project. Hey, maybe he'll even go crazy and give Grant's character a name.

As Midsommar is mostly set in rural Sweden, you can be certain the film will feature its share of Swedish actors. You can be just as certain that American viewers have probably not seen many of those actors before. But there may just be a few familiar faces amongst the film's Swedish set, and Julia Ragnarsson who (with a little sleuthing) we can infer is playing a character called Siv, is one face you may well have seen before. That's especially true for fans of the popular detective series Wallander. Not only did Ragnarsson appear on the original Swedish series, she landed a role on the BBC remake, which featured the likes of Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hiddleston. Of course, diehard fans of the Swedish indie film scene are certain to recognize Ragnarsson for her work in the film Stockholm Stories, as well as for her role as the 12-year-old version of the Stina character in the critically adored arthouse drama Everlasting Moments.