After watching the trailer for April X last August, I walked away needing to know: What is Connor Storrie doing in this strange sci-fi movie? The 26-year-old actor is currently riding a wave of fame after his breakout role as Ilya Rozanov, one half of the hockey-playing couple in the fan-frenzying Heated Rivalry. That’s why seeing him in this fringe thriller might feel like a strange career development.
The easy answer: Storrie filmed April X before stepping foot on the Heated Rivalry set. Strangely enough, the actor also plays a Russian character in the upcoming movie. Here, he portrays Baxter, a low-level criminal living in a near-future post-Soviet dystopia. As you might expect from such a movie, he fights for survival, rolling with the wrong crowd (in this case, of course, murderous black-market criminals). The true crux of the story rests on the disappearance of his twin sister, kicking off an odyssey into the criminal underworld. Oh, and he also appears to descend into madness.
Director Michel K. Parandi cast Storrie from around 100 actors who auditioned. The actor nailed the audition well before anyone knew his name. Before this, Storrie had only popped up in a few small roles or as an extra, as in Benjamin Howard’s Riley or as an inmate in the 2024 Joker sequel. Still, Parandi recently told Variety: “I remember telling everybody early on that he was going to be a movie star.” Well, he was right. Ahead of Storrie’s next movie, here’s everything you need to know about April X.
Connor Storrie as Bax and Lilly Krug as April in April XVertigo Releasing
So, who is April?
Baxter (or just Bax) survives the post-Soviet hellscape alongside his fraternal twin sister, April (Lilly Krug donning a bleach-blonde bob, as well as red- and blue-colored wigs). The trailer suggests that April “had something special.” When she’s kidnapped (or disappears of her own accord, we really don’t know), Baxter still has visions of his sister (perhaps that’s the “something special”).
What is April X about?
You probably already get the gist. Baxter strikes a bad deal with a run-of-the-mill slimy mafia leader and owes some money. It’s life or death, and he’s emptied his shared accounts with his sister. She tells him she can fix it and then, well, doesn’t. The trailer doesn’t really share much about what else happens, besides motorcycle chases and gunfights. Chased down by the criminals, Baxter appears to lose his mind a little. He sees hallucinations of his sister (maybe just actually his magical sister), but this certainly doesn’t help his frantic state of mind.
Connor Storrie as Bax and Lilly Krug as April in April XVertigo Releasing
When did Connor Storrie film April X?
Storrie reportedly filmed April X in Bucharest, Romania, back in 2024. For reference, Heated Rivalry wasn’t filmed until 2025, from April to June. Production finished more than a year ago, and April X premiered at the 2025 Rhode Island Film Festival. It also opened the Raindance Film Festival in June.
When does April X come out?
In a surprising move, April X will come out exclusively in theaters—not streaming. This is definitely something for moviegoers to celebrate. But here’s the catch: The new film shares its premiere date with some of the fall’s biggest hits, including Digger and Verity on October 2.
What’s next for Connor Storrie?
April X isn’t necessarily the Connor Storrie turn we want, but it sure as hell ushers in the actor’s movie-star era. This is the first of five more confirmed projects on the way. Those include Transaction Planet, Storrie’s directorial debut—a sci-fi movie shot with an iPhone. Sarah Polley’s adaptation of The Bell Jar sees Storrie play Marco opposite Billie Eilish’s Esther Greenwood. He will pop up in Molly Gordon’s comedy Peaked, Craig Zobel’s Turpentine alongside Melissa McCarthy, and Babygirl director Halina Reijn’s Please. Unfortunately, none of these projects have release dates yet. So April X will have to keep us satisfied for now.
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