Taylor Swift’s new video for “Patient Zero” is officially here, and it may be Swift’s darkest yet.
Fast premiered the new video at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards Sunday after submit a teaser for the project a few days earlier on social networks. The song is one of four tracks from the encore edition of Swift’s 2025 album The life of a showgirlwhich she published on September 25.
The moody, psychological thriller-inspired “Patient Zero” video stars Swift alongside Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell. In the video, Johnson plays the wife of a wealthy businessman (Farrell) who begins to suspect that her perfect husband might be manipulating and putting her under pressure. Swift plays his former wife, an heiress who, at the end of the video, is revealed to have been killed by Farrell’s character. The ghost of Swift’s character tries to warn Johnson’s character to “run” before it’s too late.
Also appearing briefly in the video is Cara Delevingne, a longtime friend of Swift’s, who plays the “other woman” that Johnson’s character suspects of flirting with her husband.
This is the first time Swift and Johnson have worked together, but the two are friends. They were spotted having dinner together in New York in 2025, and next April, Swift wrote an essay praising Johnson when the Materialists The star was named to Time’s 2026 list of the 100 most influential people.
“As a friend, I can vouch for her authenticity, but I might add that she is also one of the most empathetic people I have ever known,” Swift wrote at the time.
Talk to the associated press on September 24, Johnson called the music video shoot “the best.”
“It’s so much fun working with your friends,” she said. “I love spending time with her, so getting out and creating stuff is really fun.”
In a interview with Fan Girl Nation at his side Truth His costar Josh Hartnett, Johnson again shared that the experience of making “Patient Zero” was “so much fun.”
“Taylor and I have been friends for a very long time, we’re very close and we decided to work together,” she said. “And that’s great. As usual, I’d say don’t work with your friends, but we work really well together.”
This video shares thematic similarities with Johnson’s upcoming movie Trutha psychological thriller based on Colleen Hoover’s 2018 novel of the same name. In the film, released October 2, Johnson plays a writer named Lowen tasked with taking over a mysterious series of The main character of Anne Hathaway. Along the way, she finds herself entangled in a strange web of deception, murder and unreliable narrators.
The premiere of “Patient Zero” wasn’t Swift’s only major moment at the VMAs this week. The “Fate of Ophelia” star, who was tied with Beyoncé with 30 wins after the 2025 awards show, was nominated 11 times this year. By bringing home the inaugural artistic director honorsSwift has officially become the most awarded artist at the VMAs.
If Swift is well known for her music, the VMAs also highlight another of her passions: directing. She directed the music videos for “Le destin d’Ophélie” and “Opalite”, both nominated in different categories this year, as well as a multitude of other videos from her catalog. Swift won video of the year for “The Destiny of Ophelia,” the final award at the VMAs.
In 2022, it was announced that she had planned to make his first feature film from his own screenplay in partnership with Searchlight Pictures. For the moment, no further details have been revealed.
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