Anne Hathaway spooks Dakota Johnson — and us — in bloody first 'Verity' trailer
Anne Hathaway spooks Dakota Johnson — and us — in bloody first 'Verity' trailer
Suzy ByrneTue, August 11, 2026 at 4:27 PM UTC
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Anne Hathaway as Verity Crawford in the new trailer forVerity, in theaters Oct. 2.
The first Verity trailer has arrived — and it looks like it's going to be just as unhinged as Colleen Hoover's book.
The movie stars a very busy Anne Hathaway as the title character, Verity Crawford, a bestselling author who becomes incapacitated under suspicious circumstances and is unable to finish her book series. Enter Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer who's hired by Verity's husband, Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett), to ghostwrite the final books.
The trailer for the psychological thriller shows Lowen arriving at the remote Crawford residence, where she will work and live. That's where things get, in Lowen's words, "insane." Is Verity really incapacitated — or is she watching her? Is the autobiography Lowen finds on Verity's computer, which reveals Verity to be deeply disturbed, real? And is Jeremy — who Lowen starts sleeping with — a good guy or a bad one?
The film hits theaters on Oct. 2 and leans into the spooky season. There's ominous music and Hathaway creepily staring from her wheelchair. Not to mention the thumbtack into the hand part. There's blood and death — plus a lot of sex.
Verity is directed by Michael Showalter, who previously worked with Hathaway on 2024's The Idea of You. Nick Antosca is the screenwriter, with Hoover also getting a writing credit.
Ismael Cruz Cordóva and Brady Wagner also appear in the film — with Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper reportedly making a cameo. Hathaway and Johnson are also producers.
The book already has an 'unhinged' reputation
Hoover, best known for her book-turned-movie It Ends With Us and that film's resulting drama, self-published Verity in 2018. After garnering attention from the BookTok community on TikTok, Grand Central Publishing acquired the rights to it in 2021.
Verity has since become one of Hoover's most dissected books — in no small part because of its unreliable narrators, violence, disturbing revelations, graphic sex scenes and divisive ending. Some readers love it — finding it to be a can't-look-away page-turner — while others have deemed it slop, like the viral YouTube reviewer that called it an "unhinged dumpster fire."
Hoover, who has sold over 35 million books, wrote on Goodreads that out of all her books, she "had the most fun writing" Verity.
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When the casting of the three main characters was announced, Hoover wrote on Instagram, "Excited is an understatement."
Things got bloody on the New York sets
Filming in New York City in 2025 drew the paparazzi.
Johnson and Hartnett filming one of the opening scenes from the book outside Grand Central Terminal showed Johnson being splattered with fake blood.
Hartnett and Hathaway shot a scene on the streets of New York in happier times for their characters. They were decked out in formal attire, smiling and holding hands — before the so-called storm.
Johnson told Deadline she "honestly didn't know anything about 'Verity' when I first read the script." Hathaway, who is having a big film year also with The Odyssey, The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Mother Mary, recently told the Hollywood Reporter that she hopes "audiences don't get sick of my face" by the time it comes out.
Another Hoover adaptation — after the It Ends With Us drama
Verity will arrive with extra baggage because of what happened with the last major Hoover adaptation.
It Ends With Us, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the latter who also directed the film, was a box-office hit when it opened in August 2024. However, its success was overshadowed by Lively's allegations of workplace misconduct. Baldoni denied the allegations.
The costars reached a settlement in May, two weeks before the case was set to go to trial.
Hoover's books Regretting You and Reminders of Him have also been adapted for the screen, without the same kind of controversy swirling around them. And now Verity is beginning its own chapter, hopefully keeping the drama confined to the screen.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
