Eli Roth’s Borderlands adds Janina Gavankar as a new, key character

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A few months ago, we heard that Janina Gavankar had co-written and would be starring in a "female-driven monster movie based on the ancient Hindu myth of the Rakshasa". While we wait to hear further updates on that project, Gavankar has signed on for a role in genre filmmaker Eli Roth's upcoming video game adaptation Borderlands.

Gavankar's Borderlands role is Commander Knoxx, "a new, key character" who has not been in the video games.

Also in the film's cast are Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett, Olivier Richters, and Jack Black. 

Scripted by Craig Mazin, Borderlands is based on the game from Gearbox and 2K. The film has the following synopsis:

Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. 

Borderlands is being produced by Arad Productions' Avi Arad and Ari Arad, along with PICTURESTART's Erik Feig. Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford serves as executive producer with Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two Interactive. James Myers and Aaron Edmonds are overseeing the project for Lionsgate, while Emmy Yu does the same for Arad Productions and Lucy Kitada and Royce Reeves-Darby are overseeing for PICTURESTART.

Gavankar's previous credits include Blindspotting, The Morning Show, The Way Back, The Gates, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Sleepy Hollow, White Orchid, and Cup of My Blood. She may be best known for portraying the character Iden Versio in the video game Star Wars Battlefront II.