Bates Motel books Rihanna in Janet Leigh role
Rihanna is coming to Bates Motel!
As revealed during the A&E show's panel at Comic-Con on Friday, the Grammy-winning singer will play Marion Crane, the role made famous by Janet Leigh in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. For those who may not remember, Crane is the ill-fated guest at the Bates Motel who is murdered in her shower by Norman.
"We wanted to thrust the iconic role into a contemporary spotlight and redefine it in a meaningful and exciting new way," executive producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin said in a statement. "We also heard Rihanna was a fan of the show, and we were huge fans of hers, so it was the perfect collision of creativity and fate."
Rihanna has previously appeared as an actress in Battleship and Annie, and will appear in the upcoming 2017 film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. More on that here.
The team kicked off the panel by confirming the long-running rumor that the fifth season of the show would also be its last. The news comes on the heels of Norman (Freddie Highmore) murdering Norma (Vera Farmiga) at the close of season 4, fulfilling his destiny to become the psycho fans know from the titular movie.
In other news, series star Max Thieriot will make his directorial debut during the season, and Nestor Carbonell will direct an episode for the third time. Further, Highmore will write his second episode alongside Cuse and Ehrin.
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"We are going to meet Marion Crane, but what we don't want to do is create the impression that we're redoing the movie because we're not at all," Cuse told EW just before the panel. "She's a very different person in the movie and her story plays out in a different way."
Watch that interview below:
Bates Motel is expected to return to A&E in 2017.
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