Set to reach theatres on January 28, 2022, Orphan: First Kill is going to give us the chance to watch Isabelle Fuhrman reprise the role of Esther, the “homicidal 30-something pretending to be a 9-year-old” we were introduced to in the 2009 movie Orphan (watch it HERE). It has been said that Fuhrman, who is now 24 years old, was made to look like a child again through “a combination of forced perspective shooting and a world-class makeup team” – and during a recent interview with Slash Film, Fuhrman revealed that “two young ladies”, Kennedy and Sadie Lee, were also hired to be Esther’s stand-in for certain angles.
While Fuhrman was a child and studied the adult females around her to help her performance on the first movie, for this prequel she
felt really childlike working on the movie, and I felt like it was a great excuse for me to revisit some parts of my childlike self, because instead of finding moments to seem more adult, I had to find more moments to seem more childlike. It was a different challenge. When I was a kid, I thought about everything a lot and made a lot of notes, but it was a different performance as a kid, because you’re not necessarily understanding all the themes that you’re trying to address. And in this one, I’m completely aware of everything that’s going on, because I’m old enough to emotionally grasp it.”
Fuhrman added that director William Brent Bell gave her “complete free rein” to work with Kennedy and Sadie Lee on the Esther performance:
And I’m so grateful to that because it allowed the three of us to create something special. And I think people will be really interested to see this Esther that is the Esther before the Esther you’ve seen in the previous film.”
Scripted by David Coggeshall, Orphan: First Kill has the following synopsis:
Leena Klammer orchestrates a 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, Rossif Sutherland, Matthew Finlan, and Hiro Kanagawa are also in the cast.
Co-financed by eOne and Dark Castle, Orphan: First Kill was produced by James Tomlinson, with Dark Castle Entertainment’s Alex Mace, Hal Sadoff, and Ethan Erwin. Original Orphan screenwriter David Leslie Johnson served as executive producer alongside Daryl Katz, Chloe Katz, Paul Marcaccio, Victor Moyers and Kyle Irving. Kelly Gallagher and Robert Bell co-produced, with Jen Gorton and Josie Liang overseeing for eOne. Fuhrman also has an associate producer credit.
The film has been rated R for “bloody violence, language, and brief sexual content“.