Welcome back for another RESUME - a complete breakdown of the careers, reputations, hits, misses, and future outlooks of LRF’s biggest stars. This edition examines the strange and steadily evolving career of Joe Keery, one of LRF’s most unconventional modern leading men.
Joe Keery’s LRF career has never followed a traditional trajectory. Rather than arriving as a polished blockbuster lead or prestige drama prodigy, Keery gradually carved out a niche through eccentric supporting performances, genre experimentation, and increasingly unusual projects. For years, he felt less like a future movie star and more like an actor directors specifically sought out for a certain nervous charm and unpredictability.
Then, unexpectedly, LRF started building films around him.
Between cult horror, legacy superhero storytelling, and increasingly ambitious leading roles, Keery has quietly become one of the studio’s most fascinating wild cards. His filmography remains uneven commercially, but it is also one of the most distinct careers currently developing inside LRF. With The Chain approaching, Keery now stands at an unusual crossroads between cult favorite and genuine mainstream star.
FIRST LRF APPEARANCE --- 7 Days (Season 10)
TOTAL LRF PROJECTS --- 6
GOLDEN REEL AWARDS --- 0
GRA NOMINATIONS --- 0
HIGHEST GROSSING FILM --- Starman ($182,658,305)
BEST REVIEWED FILM --- 7 Days (Metascore: 80)
SIGNATURE GENRE --- Horror / Fantasy
FREQUENT COLLABORATORS --- None Yet
CURRENT CAREER STATUS --- Cult Favorite Ascending
Joe Keery enters Season 36 as one of LRF’s most difficult stars to categorize — which may ultimately work in his favor. While his commercial track record remains inconsistent, Keery has steadily built credibility through a mixture of cult genre films, ensemble prestige dramas, and eccentric leading performances that increasingly feel tailored specifically to his strengths. More importantly, he has avoided becoming interchangeable with more conventional young leading men.
The success of Phantasm: Awakening and Starman have significantly elevated Keery’s standing within LRF by proving he could anchor large-scale genre properties emotionally rather than simply comedically. Upcoming projects like The Chain may now determine whether he remains a cult-oriented specialty performer or fully crosses over into mainstream awards and commercial territory simultaneously.
SEASON 10 - 7 DAYS
Joe Keery’s LRF debut came in S. Craig Zahler’s brutal revenge thriller 7 Days. Though his role as shady gun supplier Alex was relatively small, the project immediately placed Keery inside serious prestige-adjacent filmmaking alongside performers like Bryan Cranston, Julianne Moore, and Sterling K. Brown.
The film itself became one of LRF’s early critical successes, earning strong reviews and major awards attention, including a Best Actor win for Cranston. Keery’s role was minor, but even early on, his awkward energy and slightly untrustworthy screen presence stood out in memorable ways.
Looking back, 7 Days quietly established the type of morally slippery supporting characters Keery would repeatedly excel at throughout the early part of his career.
SEASON 12 - DAYS WITHOUT END
Keery’s first major dramatic role arrived quickly afterward in Doug Liman’s adaptation of Days Without End.
Playing John Cole opposite Jack Reynor, Keery took on emotionally heavier material within a sweeping frontier war drama centered around violence, survival, and identity in 1850s America. While the film ultimately underperformed financially and received mixed reviews compared to its ambitions, Keery’s performance demonstrated surprising dramatic vulnerability and range.
More importantly, Days Without End revealed that LRF viewed Keery as capable of carrying emotionally serious material far earlier than many audiences likely realized.
SEASON 22 - HOUSE WITHOUT END
After a lengthy absence from major LRF productions, Keery returned in Fede Álvarez’s supernatural horror film House Without End.
Playing Peter Terry, the former boyfriend of Jodie Comer’s Kristy Henderson, Keery once again occupied a supporting role, but his appearance marked an important shift in his career. Horror and surreal genre storytelling increasingly seemed to suit his anxious charisma and slightly uncanny onscreen energy.
Though the film itself received mixed reviews, it performed respectably financially and helped reconnect Keery with genre audiences in a way that would become extremely important later in his career.
SEASON 29 - STARMAN
Then came Starman.
Directed by The Duffer Brothers, the DC Comics adaptation represented the single biggest gamble of Keery’s career to that point. Casting him as Jack Knight — an aimless antique dealer forced into inheriting the Starman mantle — initially felt unconventional for a superhero film lead.
That unconventionality ultimately became the film’s greatest strength.
Rather than attempting to transform Keery into a traditional action hero, Starman embraced his natural awkwardness, melancholy, and offbeat humor. The result was one of LRF’s strangest and most emotionally grounded superhero films. Though the movie’s box office was only modestly successful, audiences strongly connected with Keery’s performance as a reluctant hero struggling with grief and responsibility.
More importantly, Starman fundamentally changed how Keery was viewed within LRF. He was no longer simply an eccentric supporting actor.
He was now a viable leading man.
SEASON 32 - PHANTASM: AWAKENING
If Starman established Keery as a leading actor, Phantasm: Awakening solidified him as a full-fledged genre star.
Directed by David Robert Mitchell and produced by J. J. Abrams, the ambitious reboot of the cult horror franchise paired Keery with Wyatt Oleff as brothers caught in a surreal dimensional nightmare orchestrated by the Tall Man.
Playing Jody Pearson, Keery delivered the most emotionally mature performance of his career so far. Rather than relying on nervous humor or quirky charm, he anchored the film with genuine warmth and tragic heroism, culminating in Jody’s sacrifice during the film’s climax.
Financially and critically, the film became the most successful project of Keery’s career to date. More importantly, it cemented him as one of LRF’s defining faces within modern horror-fantasy storytelling.
SEASON 34 - HEIST SOCIETY
Following the success of Phantasm: Awakening, Keery pivoted sharply back toward lighter material with James Gunn’s adaptation of Heist Society.
Playing charming thief W.W. Hale opposite Kiernan Shipka, Keery seemed perfectly cast on paper for the breezy ensemble caper. Unfortunately, the film became one of LRF’s more notable recent commercial disappointments, underperforming badly despite its recognizable cast and accessible premise.
Even so, Keery himself remained one of the film’s brighter elements. His performance reinforced his growing ability to carry charismatic ensemble material even when the projects themselves fail to fully connect with audiences.
BEST PERFORMANCE --- Phantasm: Awakening
Jody Pearson finally allowed Keery to merge all of his onscreen strengths into one role: vulnerability, humor, emotional sincerity, and quiet heroism.
MOST UNDERRATED PROJECT --- Days Without End
Overshadowed by stronger films later in his career, Days Without End remains one of the earliest indicators of Keery’s dramatic potential.
BIGGEST CAREER GAMBLE --- Starman
Casting Keery as the lead of a DC superhero film initially seemed bizarre. In hindsight, the unconventional casting became the film’s defining strength.
CAREER TURNING POINT --- Starman
Without Starman, it is difficult to imagine Keery becoming the emotional centerpiece of Phantasm: Awakening or leading larger genre productions moving forward.
BEST COLLABORATOR --- The Duffer Brothers
Their understanding of Keery’s unusual leading-man qualities helped unlock the most important phase of his career so far.
MOST SURPRISING PROJECT --- 7 Days
Seeing the future star of Starman and Phantasm: Awakening debut as a shady gun dealer in an ultra-violent Zahler revenge thriller remains one of the stranger starting points to any major LRF career.
THE CHAIN
Keery’s next major project may become the most important film of his career.
Starring opposite Sydney Sweeney in a Fleetwood Mac biopic, Keery will portray Lindsey Buckingham during one of the most emotionally chaotic and creatively explosive periods in the band’s history. The role immediately represents a major tonal shift away from fantasy and horror material, potentially positioning Keery directly inside awards-season territory for the first time.
If successful, The Chain could dramatically redefine his career trajectory.
POTENTIAL FRANCHISE FUTURE
Though no official announcements have been made, both Starman and Phantasm: Awakening appear positioned for possible continuations. Given Keery’s growing association with both properties, LRF may quietly be building multiple long-term genre franchises around him simultaneously.
RESUME will continue tracking the hits, misses, risks, reinventions, and legacies of LRF’s biggest stars in future editions. Stay tuned.
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