Netflix's highly anticipated Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot is right around the corner. USA Today has released a new image of a character that fans of the classic horror movie might recognize. The image shows the 1974 film's original final girl Sally Hardesty, now played by Olwen Fouéré, looking at an old polaroid while seated behind the wheel of a car. In the original film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Sally was the sole survivor after her entire group of friends was murdered by Leatherface. The character was referenced in multiple sequels and her death was mentioned in the 1990 film Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. However, this would hardly be the first time that a horror franchise brought a beloved character back from the grave.
The original Sally was played by Marilyn Burns, who passed away in 2014. She also appeared in spin-off sequels Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation in 1994, and Texas Chainsaw in 2013. As her replacement, Fouèrè is an actor, writer, and director, with acting projects including Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, This Must Be the Place, and The Survivalist. She also has several upcoming projects in addition to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, including The Northman and The Ulysses Project.
Much like the new Halloween trilogy, Netflix's Texas Chainsaw Massacre disregards the plethora of sequels in the franchise and reboots directly from the original film in the series, allowing them to bring back Sally without navigating her supposed death. The film catches up with Leatherface forty-seven years after the initial massacre, setting the new movie in the present, forty-eight years after the original was released. Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows Ruth (Nell Hudson) and her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher) as they head to Texas for a business trip and quickly come face to leather-face with the legendary killer.
In addition to Fouéré, Hudson, and Fisher, Texas Chainsaw Massacre stars Sara Yarkin (Happy Death Day 2U), Moe Dunford (The Dig), Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact), Jacob Latimore (The Maze Runner), Jessica Allain (The Laundromat), Sam Douglas (Snatch), William Hope (Dark Shadows), and Jolyon Coy (War & Peace). The film is directed by David Blue Garcia, who directed Tejano in 2018, and written by Chris Thomas Devlin; this is Devlin's first feature film screenplay. It is produced by Bad Hombre, Exurbia Films, and Legendary Entertainment.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be streaming exclusively on Netflix on February 18.