It’s been almost three years since we first heard Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials would get new life on TV, and the wait was worth it. New reports suggest Lin-Manuel Miranda is in talks for a key role, along with Logan star Dafne Keen.
Every once in a while, a female-driven film is so successful that it wakes studios up a little more to the reality that women actually watch movies. Bridesmaids paved the way for more raunchy female comedies; The Hunger Games and Twilight gave us a slew of YA copycats (and the subsequently more interesting careers of Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart); and now Wonder Woman is inspiring studios to place more emphasis on their female superheroes. One of those heroes could be X-23, aka Laura, Hugh Jackman’s young mutant sidekick in Logan.
One of the main draws of this year’s Logan was the new mutant X-23, otherwise known as Laura, a usually quiet, sullen child who turns into a whirlwind of tooth and claw when the mood strikes. Logan’s Laura was played by the fantastic newcomer Dafne Keen, but there was a time during auditions when the role might have gone to a more recognizable face: Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown.
The role of young mutant Laura (aka X-23) in Logan is a demanding one, to say the least, and it’s not surprising that finding the perfect actor for the part was equally challenging for director James Mangold. He needed to find a 12-year-old actress with acrobatic and martial-arts skills who could speak English and Spanish, and, perhaps most important of all, hold her own opposite Hugh Jackman. That’s a pretty specific list of requirements, but Dafne Keen fit the bill (and then some), and now you can watch one of the incredibly impressive (and profanity-laden, FYI) audition tapes that led to her breakout role.