Orphan: First Kill: Julia Stiles on Isabelle Fuhrman’s return as Esther

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I can't wait to see a trailer for Orphan: First Kill, director William Brent Bell's prequel to the 2009 thriller Orphan (watch it HERE). That's because Isabelle Fuhrman reprises the role of Esther, the "homicidal 30-something pretending to be a 9-year-old" she played in the first film, even though she really was a child when she first played the character. Bell and his crew took on the challenge of making the twenty-something look like a preteen again through "a combination of forced perspective shooting and a world-class makeup team" – and I'm really looking forward to seeing how well that's going to work. According to Fuhrman's co-star Julia Stiles, they did a great job on this.

Speaking with Collider recently, Stiles said, 

What's remarkable is that Isabelle Fuhrman, who played the little girl in the original Orphan, now reprises her role as the same girl, same age, even though Isabelle's older now. … But I just went and did ADR … and I was floored. Because they didn't use CGI. The tricks that they did with the camera and different perspective tricks that they had, plus her costume and prosthetics and all that, she looks like a child. And her performance is stunning, because she embodies a child too in the way that she talks and the way she walks.

I think fans of the first one will enjoy this one as well because there is a huge twist that I can't give away, but it's got all that crazy psychologically terrorizing stuff that the first one had. Just this character that Isabelle plays, Esther or Leena or the multiple names that she has, it reminds me of why Norman Bates was so captivating. It's just a sociopath, but in this child. So it was very fun to work on, for someone who doesn't watch horror movies."

Written 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.

The film 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, with Jen Gorton and Josie Liang overseeing for eOne.

A release date for Orphan: First Kill has not yet been announced.