The Kings Of Summer’s Nick Robinson Joins Chloe Moretz In The 5th Wave

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

nick robinson the kings of summerCareer boosts don’t get much bigger than the one that actor Nick Robinson is currently experiencing. After having a steady role on TV and one breakout part in an indie film, Robinson snagged a role in Colin Trevorrow’s upcoming Jurassic World and has now been added to Sony Pictures big-screen adaptation of the novel The 5th Wave. Can we get this guy in a Star Wars spin-off and keep him in sci-fi for a while?

Robinson will be joining the already cast Chloe Moretz and the also newly cast Alex Roe, a London actor perhaps best known for a run on the British teen soap opera The Cut. One attractive young actor deserves another, I suppose, though this plot doesn’t sound like anyone will be running around all gussied up.

Based on the highly popular 2013 novel from author Rick Yancey, the J. Blakeson-directed The 5th Wave is a post-apocalyptic tale (naturally) that focuses on 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan (Moretz), one of the only remaining survivors on Earth after wave after wave after wave after wave of destructive alien attacks. (That fifth wave is happening!) Cassie is trying to save her younger brother, but that whole “nearly everyone else on Earth has been killed” thing is kind of an obstacle.

Robinson will play Zombie, Cassie’s high school crush. The invasions didn’t make falling in love very easy, and it’s made even more difficult now that Zombie has been morphed into a militarized teenage alien killing machine. Roe, meanwhile, will play a guy named Evan, who may or may not know exactly what the aliens are all about and how to stop them for good. There’s always that one guy!

News of the casting was announced through production company GK Films’ Twitter page.

For the past five years, Robinson has played the Ryder Scanlon on ABC Family’s sorta romantic sitcom Melissa and Joey. He proved himself to be quite the leading (young) man in Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ coming of age drama The Kings of Summer last year, knocking it out of the park as a rebellious teenager with dreams of living in the wild on his own.

Roe’s career began back in 2000 with Richard Caesar’s horror feature The Calling, but it’s been only TV between then and now. He’s had roles on series such as The Fugitives and Hollyoaks, and this will be his first American role. So let’s welcome him nicely, unless he’s hiding alien secrets; then, we destroy him.

the 5th wave

The 5th Wave is the first of a planned novel trilogy, with Yancey’s second Wave novel, The Infinite Sea, coming out on September 16 of this year. Yancey’s other popular series, The Monstrumologist, was recently tapped for an adaption from Warner Bros.

Production on The 5th Wave is set to begin in September.