Scarlett Johansson has always been something of a chameleon. On screen, she moves from Marvel’s Black Widow to indie darlings like Marriage Story with a seamless shift that makes her seem almost genre-proof. In Prada’s new Fall 2025 Galleria campaign, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, she leans into that fluidity and turns it into a meditation on identity itself.
The campaign, titled “Ritual Identities,” unfolds like a dream. Lanthimos, known for his surreal cinematic language, places Johansson in everyday settings that are never entirely everyday. She brushes her hair, sips her coffee, walks through a dimly lit apartment, yet each action carries a strangeness. Scenes repeat with subtle shifts. Scarlett appears as multiples of herself, a reminder that identity is never one note but always layered, fragmented, and evolving.
At the center of it all sits the Prada Galleria bag. It is not just an accessory but a talisman. Johansson carries it from one version of herself to the next, as if the structure and luxury of the bag anchor her while everything else shifts. The message is clear: a woman can be endlessly in flux and still hold a constant piece of power in her hand.
Fashion is, of course, in dialogue with the film’s narrative. Scarlett wears sleek black tailoring, fluid dresses with sharp silhouettes, and makeup that balances modernist restraint with cinematic drama. The looks capture Prada’s dual spirit of intellect and sensuality, of fashion that can be both minimal and maximal, cerebral and emotional.
Johansson has worked with Prada before, but this campaign feels different. It feels like a merging of actor and role, model and muse. By placing her inside a story rather than a still image, Prada reminds us that identity is never static. Style is not only what we wear but how we carry our shifting selves through the world.
For a generation that has watched Johansson reinvent herself time and again, this campaign lands as both familiar and startling. Prada has turned the act of carrying a bag into an art of transformation, and Johansson proves once again that she is the perfect actress to hold the role.
