The first Snow White And The Huntsman film was a financial success, if not exactly a critical one. But we can all agree it had a dire lack of one thing: the woman who tracked down and took out Osama Bin Laden. (With nunchucks and a flame thrower, right? We haven’t gotten around to seeing Zero Dark Thirty, but that sounds correct.) That void has now been filled, as Variety reports that Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain has joined the cast of Universal’s The Huntsman.
This is the latest news from a film that has seen seen its fair share of pre-production tumult. First Kristen Stewart was booted after that whole affair thing, because if there’s one thing Hollywood won’t tolerate, it’s sleeping around. (While being a woman, of course. The industry would grind to a halt if they held their male stars to the same standard.) The film then switched focus to Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman, going from a sequel to a spinoff. Then Frank Darabont was set to write and direct the film. Then he wasn’t. When last we checked in, the film had also tossed most of the dwarves, making this essentially the Frasier of Snow White spinoffs; sure, maybe Bebe Neuwirth’s Lilith will show up at some point to check in and sleep with the Huntsman, but it’s basically a separate entity now.
All details are still being kept under wraps, aside from the fact that it’s a prequel in which we learn how huntsman Eric (Hemsworth) and evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) first met. That means we still don’t know what the hell Emily Blunt and Chastain will be doing, but presumably one of them plays the oft-referenced dead wife of Hemsworth’s character from the first film. Either that, or it’s a “Who’s the fairest of them all” contest, with Blunt, Chastain, Theron, and Hemsworth all wearing their most flattering dresses while making duck faces into the magic mirror.