2025 was the year of twins. Mickey 17, The Monkey, Sinners, The Alto Knights. For UK audiences in 2026, the trend continues with Twinless. A comedy drama, it sees Dennis (James Sweeney) and Roman (Dylan O’Brien) forge a friendship after their respective twin dies. As their bond grows, dark secrets threaten to tear the pair apart.
O’Brien is (rightfully) receiving praise for his incredible dual performance, but Sweeney deserves his flowers too. As well as playing the lead role, he also wrote, produced and directed the project. Before the film’s UK release, FILMHOUNDS chats with the multi-hyphenate filmmaker about the journey so far.
Below is an excerpt from the full interview, which you can read in the latest issue of FILMHOUNDS Magazine.
You’ve had the recent GALECA nominations come through. You’ve had numerous wins, nominations. What’s the journey been like since you’ve had the Twinless premiere at Sundance?
Sundance was sort of a dream. When I think about where that lands and the journey of this film, overall, it feels like the very tail end of it. I started writing this script in 2015, so that really felt like the culmination of, you know, a third of my life, leading up to that. We were so welcomed and joyed to see audiences respond so favourably to the film, especially because we thought the film would be more polarising. It’s been really lovely. I will say I found it surprising in a really lovely way, the breadth of types of people who have responded to the film. But I also feel like some people who really get the film latches on, so that’s been really lovely. I did a screening at a SAG [event] with Dylan [O’Brien] recently. There was somebody in the audience who I think they said they saw [it] either five or like, eight times in theatres. And that blew my mind, ’cause I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film twice in the theatres. Which maybe is telling on me, but, yeah, it’s been really nice.
With such a long development time, did the script ever change from that initial screenplay, or was it locked in from when you had it done?
No, writing is rewriting. I still don’t think the screenplay is done, but it just had to be taken out of my hands at a certain point. I’d say that the biggest shift was off the heels of my first film, Straight Up, and then landing it in my producer’s hands, David Permut, I did a significant rewrite. The biggest change was the POV switch, where we start from Roman’s perspective, and then we switch to Dennis. That was a structural shift that happened later into the writing process. I feel [it] really balanced the storytelling out in a way that was helpful for me, [as I was] also juggling so many hats. But I’d say the emotional core of the story has always remained the same, and the characters and their dynamics. But, you know, it’s just refining and sculpting over time.
I first watched Twinless at Sundance, and then recently watched it last night. There’s such replayability with the POV switching at the start. Did replayability ever come to mind when writing and developing Twinless?
It’s funny, I actually don’t rewatch films that often, because I feel like I’m always trying to stay current. But films that I really adore, I can go back to over and over again. So that was something that I was keeping in mind. I didn’t want the film to be contingent on any sort of twist or mechanism. I wanted to feel rooted in something more… with more depth than that. But yeah, it was reverse engineering and trying to figure out how to plant and pay off, and figure out where and when to reveal information to the audience. So that was something I was keeping in mind, especially as I was directing and performing, like, how much of the dramatic irony are we letting the audience in on. Something Dylan and I spoke about was how much we want to lean into the subjectivity of Roman’s perspective and that opening act versus layering, and subtextual winks that will play in a different way upon a rewatch. And trying to find a balance of not hitting it over the head, but also having little moments that you will see in a different light upon a rewatch.
You can read the rest of the interview in Issue 27 of FILMHOUNDS Magazine.
Twinless is in UK & Irish cinemas from 6 February. Find cinemas here.
