It's been over a decade now since 2009's Orphan, starring Isabelle Fuhrman in the titular role, was released, and yet it might be one of the horror movies that still holds a top spot in the conversation for its absolutely bonkers twist.
Development on a second film, Orphan: First Kill, was announced back in February last year, but then, in a new twist almost befitting of the franchise, it was revealed that the new Orphan movie would actually be a prequel, with Fuhrman coming back alongside newcomer Julia Stiles. When we had the chance to catch up recently with Stiles, we asked her about joining a horror follow-up that's been practically a decade in the making, and she revealed how Fuhrman convincingly reprises her role as Esther/Leena.
"The working title was Esther, which I really liked, which is the name of the girl. 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."
Of course, maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that Orphan: First Kill will have just as shocking a twist as its predecessor (or sequel, technically), and although Stiles couldn't spill any secrets, she did mention how much she enjoyed working on the project, something her co-star Fuhrman echoed in a recent Collider interview.
"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," Stiles told us. "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."
Orphan: First Kill currently has no release date. Stay tuned to Collider for more of our interview with Stiles.
