WARNING: Contains spoilers for Orphan (2009).
2009’s hit Orphan was as chilling as it was disturbing. Starring Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther, it was the story of an Eastern European child who was adopted by a US family (Peter Skarsgaard and Vera Farmiga).
In the wake of losing their baby, the couple adopts Esther, a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.
According to US outlet, Deadline, Fuhrman is set to reprise her role in an upcoming prequel to the film, Orphan: First Kill (né Esther) which will be an origin story of sorts.
Shooting on the film is already underway in Canada, and according to the outlet, it will “utilize a combination of forced perspective shooting and a world-class makeup team”.
The prequel will be written by The Devil Inside’s David Coggeshall and follows “Leena Klammer’s brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. But Leena’s new life as ‘Esther’ comes with an unexpected wrinkle and pits her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost.”
Julia Stiles — best known for her earliest role as Kat in Ten Things I Hate About You as well as Dexter, Hustlers and Silver Lining’s Playbook — will star alongside Fuhrman however, no other cast announcements have been made as yet.
While critic reviews for the original were mixed, it still made approximately $113 million AUD at the worldwide box office, largely thanks to the genre-bending twist. Esther was not a little girl at all. She was an adult with primordial dwarfism.