Jacob Elordi is the top dog for a coveted role…

The 27-year-old half-Spanish Australian actor is in early talks to lead The Dog Stars, Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller for 20th Century Studios, based on the 2012 novel by Peter Heller.

Elordi looks to step in for Scott’s Gladiator II star, Paul Mescal, who was forced to depart due to scheduling conflicts after being tapped to star in Sam Mendes’ Beatles anthology, where he’s rumored to be playing Paul McCartney.

Scott first hinted at the possibility of Mescal’s exit in a December conversation with filmmaker Christopher Nolan on Gladiator II.

Set in a near future where an unnamed pandemic has decimated American society, The Dog Stars will have Elordi playing Hig, a civilian pilot living a lonely life on an abandoned Colorado airbase with his dog and a tough ex-marine. The two men couldn’t be more mismatched but depend on each other to fend off roaming invaders. When a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside the pilot that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail.

Mark L. Smith penned the script for the film, which is the next on Scott will direct.

Known for starring on HBO’s Euphoria, Elordi is due to shoot that series’ final season next year, along with Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights for Warner Bros, where he stars opposite Margot Robbie.

This year, he’ll be seen playing the title role in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein for Netflix.

Other upcoming projects include On Swift Horses, the Daniel Minahan drama co-starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, which premiered at TIFF, and Prime Video’s Australian miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North.