Amy Adams brought fairy-tale optimism to New York as Giselle in Enchanted.
Nearly two decades later, her work has taken much darker and stranger turns. In 2026, she starred in the television thriller Cape Fear and appeared opposite Jenna Ortega in Klara and the Sun. She is also in the announced cast of Star Wars: Starfighter, scheduled for 2027.
The gap between those projects and the smiling princess many viewers remember is substantial. It reflects a career that has moved through musicals, intimate dramas, science fiction and producing, with motherhood and identity becoming prominent subjects in her recent work.
Junebug and Enchanted revealed different sides of Amy Adams
Adams attracted attention as Brenda in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Then came Junebug, the 2005 independent film in which she played Ashley, a performance that brought her first Oscar nomination.
Sony Pictures Classics' production notes place those early roles together in the story of an actress beginning to find larger opportunities.
Enchanted introduced her to a much broader family audience in 2007. Giselle arrives from an animated fairy-tale world in contemporary Manhattan, where her expectations about love meet a messier reality. Disney's account of the film captures that collision at the center of the story.
Adams made the character's sincerity work without losing the comedy. She returned as Giselle in Disenchanted, released on Disney+ in November 2022, and also served as a producer on the sequel.
That return connected her newer career to a role audiences had lived with for 15 years. It also came after she had established a far wider range than that first fairy-tale performance suggested.
Her awards-era career was never confined to one type of role
Adams followed her early breakthrough with films including Doubt, The Fighter, The Master and American Hustle. By Vice, she had accumulated six Academy Award nominations: five supporting-actress nominations and one for lead actress.
She won consecutive Golden Globes for American Hustle and Big Eyes, according to the Golden Globes database. The roles placed a con artist and the painter Margaret Keane alongside an already varied collection of characters.
Her filmography also includes Lois Lane in the Superman films and the lead in Denis Villeneuve's Arrival. Those credits make it difficult to reduce her career to either prestige dramas or large studio productions.
The progression has parallels with Laura Dern's work across films and television: a recognizable screen presence can remain consistent while the size and style of the projects keep changing.
Nightbitch explored motherhood through an unusual premise
In 2024's Nightbitch, Adams played an artist who pauses her professional life to care for her young son. The character's experience becomes increasingly surreal, including the possibility that she is turning into a dog.
Marielle Heller adapted Rachel Yoder's novel and directed the film. Searchlight's official synopsis describes the domestic shift at the heart of the story, rather than presenting it simply as a creature movie.
Adams also helped develop the project as a producer. “I thought the tone was unique and it dealt with so many important issues,” she told Moviefone while discussing its development.
The role allowed questions about creative identity, relationships and care work to become physical and uncomfortable. Her willingness to take on that material is a more useful explanation of this career phase than a comparison with how she looked in earlier films.
The movie also connected her with the director behind Melissa McCarthy's dramatic performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, another Heller film centered on a complicated woman.
Cape Fear brought her back to a television thriller
Television was already an important part of Adams's career before Cape Fear. She starred as Camille Preaker in Sharp Objects and executive produced the series, earning 2019 Emmy nominations in both capacities, as the Television Academy records confirm.
In Cape Fear, she played attorney Anna Bowden opposite Patrick Wilson as her husband, Tom. Javier Bardem played Max Cady, whose release from prison threatens the couple.
The series draws inspiration from Martin Scorsese's 1991 film, with Scorsese and Steven Spielberg among its executive producers. Apple's premiere announcement confirms that the ten-episode limited series began June 5, 2026, and concluded July 31.
It gave viewers another extended dramatic performance from Adams. By November, the entire season had aired, so this is completed recent work rather than a project still awaiting its debut.
Klara and the Sun arrived in theaters in October 2026
Adams's latest released film is Klara and the Sun, directed by Taika Waititi and adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro's novel. Its U.S. theatrical release was October 23, 2026, according to Sony's announcement.
Jenna Ortega plays Klara, an Artificial Friend who forms a bond with a girl named Josie, played by Mia Tharia. Adams plays Josie's mother.
Sony's official synopsis describes a family affected by loss and a difficult mother-daughter relationship. Klara's arrival introduces another way of looking at their emotional world.
The film returns Adams to science fiction, but its focus on connection and family also links it to questions that run through her more intimate dramas.
Starfighter is part of her next chapter
Adams is also joining the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm's cast announcement includes her alongside Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth and other performers in Star Wars: Starfighter.
Directed by Shawn Levy, the film is scheduled for May 28, 2027. That date remains ahead of this article's November 2026 update.
For viewers asking where Amy Adams went, the current answer is visible across several screens: a completed television thriller, a newly released literary adaptation and a major franchise film still to come. Giselle remains part of her story, but she has continued building roles well beyond that fairy tale.