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- No Persuasion Necessary! Henry Golding and Dakota Johnson to Star in Jane Austen Adaptation
No Persuasion Necessary! Henry Golding and Dakota Johnson to Star in Jane Austen Adaptation
Getty / Roy Rochlin
We didn’t know how badly we needed Henry Golding in a Jane Austen adaptation until now. On May 5, Variety revealed that the Crazy Rich Asians actor would be joining Dakota Johnson for Netflix’s upcoming take on Persuasion. Poised as a modern retelling of Austen’s final novel, the story follows 27-year-old Anne Elliot as she deals with the reality of her family’s bankruptcy. As if Anne’s life couldn’t get any more confusing, her former fiancé, Frederick Wentworth, reenters her life just as the snobbish William Elliot makes his intentions known.
With a screenplay written by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow and Carrie Cracknell making her directorial debut, Persuasion is set to be a sweeping romantic drama. Rumoured to begin filming this month, there’s still no word on who’s been cast as the dashing Captain Wentworth (or if he’ll even stay a captain in the adaptation). Ahead, you can see what we do know so far about the movie’s cast.
Getty / Roy Rochlin
Henry Golding as William Elliot
Golding joins the cast not as the primary love interest, but as Mr. William Elliot, a distant relation of Anne Elliot. Both cold and calculating, William becomes estranged from his family after it’s revealed he married for money. In the novel, his return is welcomed when the family is in desperate need for money. It’s also this return that sees his romantic pursuit of Anne.
After roles as the charming Nick Young in Crazy Rich Asians and the too-good-to-be-true Tom Webster in Last Christmas, it’ll be interesting to see Golding play the “bad guy.”
Getty / Jon Kopaloff
Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot
To say we’re excited to see Johnson take on a modern Anne Elliot is an understatement. Despite still loving her fiancé, Frederick Wentworth, Anne is convinced at the age of 19 to break off the engagement. Eight years later, unmarried and facing bankruptcy, she reconnects with the love she thought she’d once lost. Now independent and confident in what she wants, Anne feels her future is up to her, not her family.
Best known for her role as Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades of Grey series, Johnson is no stranger to the romantic drama. We can’t wait to see what she does in the role and who is cast as the mysterious Captain Wentworth.