Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito has been cast in Please Don’t Feed the Children, the dystopian thriller marking the feature directorial debut of Destry Allyn Spielberg, daughter of Steven Spielberg.

Esposito joins an ensemble that includes Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery, former NFL player Vernon Davis, Joshuah Melnick, Emma Meisel, Dean Scott Vazquez, Zoe Margaret Colletti, Regan Aliyah, and Andrew Liner. From a screenplay by Paul Bertino, Please Don’t Feed the Children follows a gang of orphans as they travel to the south in search of a new life, after a viral outbreak decimates the country’s adult population, only to find themselves at the mercy of a psychotic woman hiding a perilous secret.

Esposito has recently been seen in high-profile shows like The Mandalorian, The Boys, Kaleidoscope, and Godfather of Harlem. He will soon be appearing in Guy Ritchie’s Netflix series The Gentlemen, the Russo brother’s The Electric State, Ti West’s horror pic MaXXXine, and Francis Ford Coppola’s long-gestating epic Megalopolis.

Principal photography on Please Don’t Feed the Children took place in New Mexico in July 2023, and production was granted an interim agreement allowing actors to continue working on Spielberg’s film during the SAG-AFTRA strike. The feature does not yet have a release window.