Rihanna lands a psycho new role.
On Friday, July 22, the A&E show’s panel revealed the bad gal’s coming to “Bates Motel.”
“We wanted to thrust the iconic role into a contemporary spotlight and redefine it in a meaningful and exciting new way,” executive producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin said in a statement during Comic-Con. “We also heard Rihanna was a fan of the show, and we were huge fans of hers, so it was the perfect collision of creativity and fate.”
As for her role, the Grammy-winning singer is poised to play Marion Crane, the iconic role previously played by Janet Leigh in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. For those who may not be familiar with the classic horror film, Crane is the ill-fated guest at the Bates Motel who is murdered in the shower by Norman Bates.
Of course, this isn’t the first major role Ri Ri’s landed. The 28-year-old has previously appeared in Battleship and Annie. She’s also set to appear in the upcoming 2017 film Valerian as well as the City of a Thousand Planets.
The team kicked off the panel by confirming a long-running rumor that the fifth season of the show would also be its last. The news comes on the heels of Norman (Freddie Highmore) murdering Norma (Vera Farmiga) at the close of season four, fulfilling his destiny to become the psycho fans know from the cult classic movie.
In other news, series star Max Thieriot will make his directorial debut during the season, and Nestor Carbonell will direct an episode for the third time. Highmore will write his second episode alongside Cuse and Ehrin.
Meanwhile, loyal fans of the 1960 slasher film can rest assured that the goal is not to recreate the epic thriller. “We are going to meet Marion Crane, but what we don’t want to do is create the impression that we’re redoing the movie because we’re not at all,” Cuse told EW just before the panel. “She’s a very different person in the movie and her story plays out in a different way.”
What are your thoughts on Rihanna’s new role? Does she have the acting chops to get the job done? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
“Bates Motel,” a prequel series to Psycho, will begin production this fall in Vancouver and returns in 2017 on A&E.
