- Fans are literally shaving their heads to see Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest collaboration with Emma Stone—a sci-fi corporate fever dream already earning cult status.
- The film, part conspiracy satire and part cosmic joke, follows a pharma CEO (Stone) kidnapped by cousins convinced she’s an alien plotting humanity’s end.
- Bugonia is in theaters starting October 31 with a global rollout through November and may stream on Peacock in early 2026—no clippers required.
By now, you’ve probably seen the headlines about Emma Stone shaving her head, or the fans doing the same in a Los Angeles theater lobby for free tickets. You may have scrolled past the photos of their glossy domes gleaming under fluorescent light, somewhere between performance art and marketing stunt. All of it circles back to Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest absurdist opus, which hit theaters this week and has already become a meme, a think piece, and a minor cultural experiment.
The film, which reunites Stone with the Poor Things director for the fourth time, is part sci-fi parable, part corporate horror, and part cosmic joke. Stone plays Michelle Fuller, a pharma CEO kidnapped by two paranoid cousins who are convinced she’s an alien plotting humanity’s extinction. What unfolds is a queasily funny morality play about conspiracy, consumption, and the increasingly thin membrane between rationality and madness.
Critics have called the film “macabre and amusing” and “a scalding, hallucinatory fable for the conspiracy age”. It’s not exactly comfort viewing, but then again, neither is the news cycle it’s riffing on. Lanthimos continues to mine discomfort for meaning, crafting a world that’s equal parts cult horror and corporate satire.
So, let’s get to the question of the hour: when can you stream this chaos from the safety of your couch?
Right now, Bugonia is only in theaters after its limited U.S. release in late October, with a global expansion rolling out through November. It’s a Universal Pictures title, so if history repeats, it’ll eventually end up on Peacock in early 2026. Universal usually gives its prestige films a long runway for award season, so expect Bugonia to linger in theaters through the holidays before heading to digital rental (probably January) and streaming soon after. Think Poor Things pacing, not Saltburn sprint.
For those keeping score, that means digital rental and purchase will likely drop in January, with full streaming access a few weeks later. Translation: by the time awards season hits its fever pitch, Bugonia will be ready for your rewatch (or your first bewildered viewing).
If you’ve followed Stone and Lanthimos since The Favourite, this is said to be their strangest—and somehow most human—collaboration yet. So yes: stream it when it lands, maybe don’t shave your head about it, and prepare for the year’s weirdest conversation starter to finally hit your living room.
