A Wrinkle in Time director Ava DuVernay has cast up-and-comer Storm Reid as Meg Murry in her adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel. The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that Disney has decided to make the main characters black or mixed race. Thirteen-year-old Reid first caught movie audiences’ attention in 2013’s 12 Years a Slave; she has since starred in various TV guest roles as well as the drama Sleight, which recently generated buzz at Sundance.
“After an extensive search that spanned multiple dimensions, we’re overjoyed to welcome Storm Reid to Wrinkle in Time as our beloved ‘Meg,'” DuVernay said in a press release. “Storm is a tremendously talented young actress who embodies the hopes, dreams and spirit of a character much loved by audiences worldwide for generations. I can’t wait to work with Storm as we chronicle Meg’s epic quest, alongside Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling as Mrs. Which, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who. Tesser well!”
Frozen screenwriter Jennifer Lee adapted L’Engle’s novel, in which Meg is joined by her younger brother, child prodigy Charles Wallace, and her classmate Calvin O’Keefe on an interstellar travel through time and space to discover the truth about tesseracts and find their missing scientist father. They are aided by three mysterious figures, the aforementioned Mrs. Whatsit (Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Kaling), and Mrs. Which (Winfrey).
“DuVernay is hoping to break ground with the movie,” THR wrote, “making a big tentpole with a cast that is multicultural, or as some have put it, ‘mono-cultural,’ something rarely reflected in the Hollywood studio world.” The studio is currently casting a nonwhite actor to play Calvin O’Keefe; we’ll be interested to see who they find to play the precocious Charles Wallace, as well.
Disney has not yet announced a release date for A Wrinkle in Time, though io9/Gizmodo guesses it’s likely to come to theaters in 2018.
Photo by Deidhra Fahey
