Emilia Clarke’s New Sci-Fi Movie Debuts To Solid Rotten Tomatoes Score

A new science-fiction movie starring Emilia Clarke debuts to a solid Rotten Tomatoes score.

Clarke is best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, with the role being one of the most iconic in HBO’s hit fantasy series. She received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her performance during the show’s eight-season run. Some of the other characters she has played are Qi’ra in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys, Louisa “Lou” Clark in Me Before You, Gi’ah in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Secret Invasion, and Beatrice “Bea” Grant in Peacock’s spy thriller Ponies.

Now, Clarke’s new movie Next Life has debuted with a solid 70% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. It debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 5, and reviews have slowly been trickling in since then, with the tenth one finally leading to a calculated score. Seven reviews are “Fresh” and three are “Rotten” for the time being, but the 70% average may fluctuate as more reviews are added to the aggregation site.

Next Life is a science-fiction romantic drama film in which Clarke plays Ivy, an aspiring jazz singer who travels across parallel universes in London’s modern jazz world. As she explores each reality, she sees the different paths her romantic life takes, and wonders which road is best-suited to her and what she wants.

In Deadline‘s review, Pete Hammond praises the numerous roles Clarke plays in the multiverse plot, along with how Next Life‘s director and writer Drake Doremus “make[s] his own thing with a similar concept, a film greatly enhanced by the lilting presence of Clarke, who is wonderful in this role(s), showing us the glory of fate, and its price.”

Sara Clements gives the movie eight out of 10 stars in Next Best Picture‘s review, which celebrates the themes and narrative resolution: “The film’s central idea that in the next life you can try again is one it clings to successfully, and ties up so well in the end.”

As for some of the reviews that give the film a “Rotten” rating, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Angie Han takes issue with the movie making its themes and emotions more abstract than tangible: “This Sliding Doors-style thought experiment is too tidy to provoke much feeling, rendering universal concepts like ‘fate’ and ‘purpose’ and ‘love’ into abstractions rather than the stuff of life.”

TheWrap’s Elizabeth Weitzman finds the movie’s premise and approach to the multiverse underwhelming, with the first line in the review being “What if you had the potential to experience two lives, but neither of them was particularly exciting?”

In addition to Clarke, Next Life‘s cast features Édgar Ramírez as Diego and Jack Farthing as Noah. Days before debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival, Vertigo Releasing acquired the movie for distribution in the U.K. and Ireland for a fall 2026 theatrical release. It has not been acquired yet for theatrical distribution in the United States.

Clarke is not new to science-fiction after Solo, Terminator Genisys, and Secret Invasion, and she is not new to romantic dramas after starring in 2016’s Me Before You opposite Sam Claflin. While it received a 55% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience reception was more favorable and closer to Next Life at 73%. The majority of the critical reviews did praise her performance and chemistry with Claflin, and instead took issue with how the movie approached its sensitive subject matter.

Her performance in Ponies, which premiered in January, received even more acclaim, and the show landed a “Certified Fresh” 94% from critics and 83% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Nevertheless, Peacock canceled the series, leaving Ponies‘ biggest mysteries and questions unanswered. Next Life cannot make up for this cancellation, but it will allow fans of Clarke’s work to see her next project.