Esther is back in our first look at the upcoming horror prequel Orphan: First Kill. Actress Isabelle Fuhrman returns to the role she first played all the way back in 2009, and will once again portray the adult killer posing as a child. Revealed courtesy of social media, the first look image reveals what Fuhrman will look like as the character after all these years as Orphan: First Kill explores the earlier years of the killer suffering from hypopituitarism.
Orphan: First Kill will once again follow Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther, who is now living under the name Leena Klammer. The horror begins when she orchestrates a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of the wealthy couple Katie and Richard Mauerova.
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But Leena’s new life comes with an unexpected wrinkle when Katie becomes convinced that she isn’t her daughter, while Richard disagrees, believing that his wife is suffering from paranoia and hallucinating. Leena tries to separate them, causing some major problems and pitting her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost.
Isabelle Fuhrman was only around 12 years old when she first played the role of Esther in 2009’s Orphan. The actress, who is now 25, will once again play the role of the adult killer who disguises herself as a child in Orphan: First Kill. But how can the movie, which is a prequel nonetheless, convince the audience that she is around the same age she was way back when.
Well, director William Brent Bell has since provided some insight into how the movie plans to resurrect Esther all these years later saying, “For me it’s like, we know the secret of the first film, so the fun of bringing Isabelle Fuhrman back into the role - which was a whole process to get approved - that is a challenge in and of itself.”
The process of bringing Esther back will involve little CGI, instead relying on “old school techniques” to convincingly transform Fuhrman into someone older than herself who is pretending to be far younger. Certainly, no easy task. “And likewise, not doing modern CGI… I mean, we use digital, we use CGI to help us… but not to create her at all,” the filmmaker added. “It’s all old school techniques: forced perspective, camera angles, where we put the light.”
Isabelle Fuhrman Has Discussed the Difficulty of Reprising the Role After All This Time
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Isabelle Fuhrman herself has also discussed the process involved in reprising the role of Esther after all this time. “There’s never been an adult actress who reprised a role she played as child,” she explained. “And that was exceptionally difficult and really fun to do, because when I was a kid and I played Esther, I was constantly playing a 33-year-old hiding herself as a kid while I was also 10, and this time, it was like, ‘here’s a little weight off my shoulders,’ since I just have to pretend I’m 10, because I’m already an adult.”
Starring Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Matthew Finlan, and Morgan Giraudet alongside Isabelle Fuhrman, Orphan: First Kill does not yet have a release date.
