Roald Dahl’s Netflix version of Matilda is slowly putting together a stellar cast, with No Time to Die and Captain Marvel star Lashana Lynch is now lined up to play Miss Honey, the kind and inspiring teacher who becomes friends and Matilda’s confidant after taking the talented young woman under her wing.
This Matilda adaptation for Netflix will be based on the musical theatrical version of Roald Dahl’s classic story in which a young bookworm prodigy fights with his parents and the head of nemesis, Miss Trunchbull.
Lashana Lynch joins her No Time to Die co-star Ralph Fiennes, who has already signed up for the project as the tyrannical director Miss Trunchbull, following the trend set by the original. Matilda the musical play that also features the character of Trunchbull played by a man.
The hugely popular musical version of the story has been running in London since 2011 and had a successful Broadway run between 2013 and 2017. The show’s original director, Matthew Warchus, whose previous credits include the 2014 biographical drama Pride, is on the verge of the board to direct the adaptation for Netflix.
The writer behind the musical theater production, Dennis Kelly, who won a Tony for adapting the novel, will be writing the script. The musical was developed by Australian comedian Tim Minchin, who composed the music and lyrics for the production, which will no doubt also make the leap from stage to screen along with everything else. During its run, the show has won multiple Tony Awards and has received much critical acclaim.
Matilda was previously adapted for the big screen courtesy of director Danny DeVito, whose adaptation of Dahl’s children’s book has become a prized film possession for many, and for good reason. Released in 1996, the film follows a precocious young woman named Matilda, who discovers that she has telekinetic abilities.
She uses these skills to play pranks on her cruel and unloving parents and the sinister principal of her school, Miss Trunchbull. The story was adapted by Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord and directed by DeVito, who also plays Matilda’s father. The rest of the cast includes Mara Wilson, Rhea Perlman, Paul Reubens, Pam Ferris, and Embeth Davidtz as Miss Honey.
Matilda is just one of many Roald Dahl adaptations to be headed to Netflix, and the streaming giant plans to bring a host of her stories to life, including an animation. Willy Wonka series, as well as new versions of The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and more.
Miss Honey isn’t Lynch’s only iconic future role as the actress will become the first 007 women in Bond’s next adventure. There is no time to die. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, No Time to Die takes up five years after the capture of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and James Bond has left active duty.
Felix Leiter, his friend, and a CIA officer approach him, who requests his help in the search for Valdo Obruchev, a missing scientist. When it becomes clear that Obruchev was kidnapped, James Bond must face a danger the world has never seen before.
Netflix’s Matilda doesn’t have a release date yet, but you can catch Lashana Lynch in No Time to Die when it hits theaters on April 2, 2021. This comes to us courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter.
