Boy Kills World: Michelle Dockery of Downton Abbey joins Sam Raimi-produced thriller

First-time feature director Moritz Mohr continues building an impressive cast for his dystopian action thriller Boy Kills World, which is being produced by Sam Raimi. We’ve previously heard that the film will star Bill Skarsgard (It), Yayan Ruhian (The Raid: Redemption), Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), Andrew Koji (Warrior), Isaiah Mustafa (It: Chapter Two), Famke Janssen (The Faculty), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Sharlto Copley (District 9), Quinn Copeland (Punky Brewster), and twin brothers Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Little Lies). Now Deadline reports that Michelle Dockery has also taken a role in Boy Kills World.

Dockery may be best known for playing Lady Mary Crawley on 52 episode of the series Downton Abbey. She has since reprised that role in the 2019 Downton Abbey movie, and is back for the upcoming film Downton Abbey: A New Era. In Boy Kills World, she’ll be playing Melanie, “the sister of the film’s Van der Koy family. Melanie is a satirical powerhouse and sociopath who tries to project a powerful cohesive family image to hide the desperation behind their decaying dynasty.” Janssen, Gelman, and Copley are also members of the antagonistic Van Der Koy family, with Janssen as matriarch Hilda, and Gelman and Copley as Gideon and Glen, respectively.

Scripted by Arend Remmers (Sløborn) and Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury: The Movie), Boy Kills World takes place in a bizarre, dark dystopian universe and centers on

a deaf and mute character, Boy (Skarsgård), who navigates this depressing world with his otherworldly imagination. Tragedy strikes when Boy’s family is brutally murdered. When his fight or flight instincts kick in, Boy finds himself on a life-threatening trek into the darkly forested jungle. There, he meets a shaman (Ruhian) who takes Boy under his wing and launches him into a cutthroat coming of age journey where he encourages his new pupil to leave his youth behind and pick up the baton as a highly trained assassin.

Sam Raimi and Zainab Azizi are producing the film through Raimi Productions, Roy Lee is producing for Vertigo Entertainment, Simon Swart and Wayne Fitzjohn are producing through Nthibah Pictures, and Alex Lebovici is producing through Hammerstone Studios. Stuart Manashil and Dan Kagan are also producers. Reza Brojerdi of Ventaro Film and Andrew Childs are executive producers.

Fitzjohn said,

We welcome Michelle to the ‘Van der Koy’ clan and the film. It is a perfect role for Michelle. It’s an exciting time for the production with filming having begun just two weeks ago. We cannot wait to show the world the result.”

Boy Kills World sounds like a good time to me, so I will be keeping a close eye on this project as it continues to move forward.