Rihanna to play Marion Crane in fifth and final season of Bates Motel

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Although it's never risen to Hannibal levels for me, I still typically count A&E's Bates Motel among the television series which have successfully and creatively adapted the movies on which they're based. The series wrapped up its fourth season earlier this year and it ended with the promise that we'd be soon be entering PSYCHO territory. During the Bates Motel panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2016, it was confirmed that the upcoming fifth season would be the last. Not a huge surprise but still nice to know that they won't be dragging the series out.

A bigger surprise came later when they announced that Rihanna would be filling the iconic role of Marion Crane in the fifth season of Bates Motel. Played by Janet Leigh in Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, Marion Crane wound up crossing paths with Norman Bates when she was forced to stop for the night at a little motel on the side of a rainy highway. Bates Motel executive producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin had this to say:

We wanted to thrust the iconic role into a contemporary spotlight and redefine it in a meaningful and exciting new way. 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 I haven't seen Rihanna act in much, aside from BATTLESHIP which isn't really a good example of…anything, I can't say whether this casting will fit in with the Bates Motel universe or not, particularly as Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga give such wonderful and strong performances. We don't know exactly how they'll be adapting PSYCHO for Bates Motel's fifth and final season, but if it's anything like the film, Rihanna probably won't be sticking around for too long.

Rihanna as Marion Crane, what do you folks think?