Jodie Comer Bows Out Of Ridley Scott’s ‘Kitbag,’ Citing Scheduling Issues; Apple In “Advanced Negotiations” With Another Star For Empress Joséphine Role

While Jodie Comer had looked to reunite with her The Last Duel director Ridley Scott this month on the set of his Napoleon Bonaparte biopic Kitbag, the actress has now made her exit from the project, citing Covid-related scheduling issues, Deadline has confirmed.

We hear that the the film’s other lead, Joaquin Phoenix, is remaining with the Apple project in the role of Bonaparte, and that the streamer is already in “advanced negotiations” with another actor who will take over Comer’s part as the French emperor and military leader’s wife, Empress Joséphine.

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The film scripted by Scott’s All the Money in the World collaborator David Scarpa is billed as an epic drama examining Bonaparte’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his one true love. Scott is producing the film with Kevin Walsh for Scott Free and said in a November interview with BBC’s Today that production is kicking off on January 15. Apple Studios committed to financing and producing the project last January, as Deadline first reported.

In The Last Duel, Comer played Marguerite de Carrouges, who accuses her husband Sir Jean de Carrouges’ (Matt Damon) friend, knight Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), of rape, prompting a deadly dual between the two. The Emmy winner will next be seen in the fourth season of AMC’s Killing Eve, which premieres on February 27, and in a West End production of Suzie Miller’s play Prima Facie, which opens at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre on April 15.

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