The cast ofRenfieldcontinues to grow as it’s now been reported thatAwkwafinahas just boarded the project in a main role. This reveal follows the news that Nicolas Cage had been cast to play Dracula in the movie alongside Nicholas Hoult as the titular henchman. Reportedly, Awkwafina will play a character who teams up with Renfield to take on the vampire king.
Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War,The Lego Batman Movie) directsRenfieldwith the script coming from Ryan Ridley (Ghosted,Rick and Morty), derived from an original story outline fromThe Walking Deadcreator Robert Kirkman. McKay and Kirkman are also producing with David Alpert, Bryan Furst, and Sean Furst. Samantha Nisenboim is executive producing.
Set in the present day,Renfieldis said to be comedic in tone, delving into the toxic and co-dependent relationship between the titular henchman andCount Dracula. The history of these characters goes all the way back to Bram Stoker’s originalDraculanovel with Renfield typically depicted as a psychiatric ward patient with an obsession for eating bugs to obtain their life-force. Dracula takes advantage of this by dangling immortality to get Renfield to do his bidding.
Awkwafina is more popular than ever after a strong showing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring alongside Simu Liu in the hit movieShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Despite opening during a pandemic, the movie pulled in more than $431 million, with many fans and critics especially enjoying Awkwafina’s performance. The actress also voiced a leading role in Disney’s animated movieRaya and the Last Dragonand continues to work on her own television seriesAwkwafina Is Nora From Queens.
There are other big projects for fans to look forward to apart from this newRenfieldmovie. Awkwafina has also joined the voice cast of the DreamWorks Animation featureThe Bad Guyswhich is due for a theatrical release next year. She also has a voice role asScuttle in Disney’s live-action remake ofThe Little Mermaid, which stars Halle Bailey as a live-action Ariel. That movie will arrive in 2023. Back in august, Awkwafina spoke about her experience in joining the Disney movie.
“Oh man. I mean, that was so cool,” she told ComicBook.com. “I mean, each one of these experiences is mind blowing in their own respect and very special, and for that one, it was so cool to work with Rob Marshall and Lin-Manuel [Miranda]. And I think that the world’s going to really, really like it.”
Just recently, Sebastian the crab voice actor Daveed Diggs also hypedThe Little Mermaidby telling Hollywood Life, “I had a great time doing it. I recently got to do an ADR session, which is the first time I got to see anything of anything in it, which was pretty wild. It’s weird, and wild, and beautiful. I’m very excited, andHalle [Bailey] is a force. I’m just happy to be playing the crab that gets to sit next to her.”
It isn’t yet clear whenRenfieldwill be released. With the solid cast that’s already getting built for the movie so far, it’s going to be interesting to see if Van Helsing joins the fray, and who might be the one playing him. This news comes to us fromThe Hollywood Reporter.
