The Peanut Butter Falcon was never a film that simply happened to cast Zack Gottsagen. Directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz wrote it for him, and the sleeper hit’s warmth came from watching an actor with Down syndrome carry a story on his own terms. The harder test of a breakout like that is what comes next, and one of the producers who backed him then is backing him again.

As Variety reported in an exclusive, Gottsagen and Anna Enger Ritch, best known as Zoe Powell on CBS’ S.W.A.T., play brother and sister in A Reason to Stay, a romantic comedy that has already wrapped principal photography in Ohio. The project reunites Gottsagen with David Thies of TVACOM Films, who produced The Peanut Butter Falcon.

The official logline puts family obligation at the centre. Gottsagen plays Zach, a young man with Down syndrome who helps run his family’s struggling animal shelter alongside his sister Sophie (Ritch), who returns home after their mother’s death. Confronting the life she left behind, Sophie has an unexpected reunion with a former love and must decide whether to go back to the future she planned or take a second chance at home. Spencer Neville also stars.

Behind the camera, the film is the first feature from Rippin Sindher, who co-wrote it with Melanie Forchetti. Sindher broke out with her 2025 short Flight 182, and in April she was named one of seven fellows of the Sundance Institute’s Cultural Impact Residency.

Gottsagen made his big-screen debut opposite Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson, and in 2020 he and LaBeouf presented together at the Academy Awards, making him the first person with Down syndrome to present an Oscar. His most recent film credit was Netflix’s 2025 thriller Night Always Comes with Vanessa Kirby. Ritch, also known as Joey in Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, last appeared on the big screen in Prime Video’s 2023 drama On a Wing and a Prayer, starring Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham.

Kelli A. White of With-An-i Productions produces alongside Promised The Moon Productions, with Amy Russ, Forchetti, William Thies and Katie Cassidy also producing. Sonein Noack and Emik David are executive producers, and Ashla Soter is line producer. Variety’s report names no distributor or release date.

In The Peanut Butter Falcon, Gottsagen’s Zak escaped a care home and rafted toward a wrestling dream. In A Reason to Stay, his Zach is the one who never left, keeping a struggling animal shelter running while his sister decides whether home is worth staying for.