Being an Oscar-winner as well as a box office champ, Emma Stone can do whatever she wants. And what she wants to do is play Cruella de Vil. We’ve long known the actress was headlining Cruella — Disney’s latest live-action twist centered on a female animated villain, after Malificent — and we’ve long known her version would be a bit more punk rock than Glen Close’s de Vil from the older live-action 101 Dalmation series. And with Disney’s D23 Expo in full swing this weekend, we were bound to finally get a peak at what she’ll look like.
And so we have. Behold the star of Easy A in her new digs.
Here’s your first look at Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil in Disney's Cruella. The film, also starring Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Joel Fry, comes to theaters May 28, 2021. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/KqxJ0yMYQ3
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) August 24, 2019
The pic shows her with Cruella’s patented perfectly segmented black-and-white hair, but with darker attire, as well as some vaguely mean-looking dalmations. She stands amidst what looks like urban rubble, flanked by two swarthy henchmen.
There are few specifics about the film, though it’s reportedly a prequel about the younger Cruella, with a more blackly comic twist.
Since winning her Academy Award for La La Land in 2017, the actress has mostly steered clear of blockbusters, doing smaller, challenging fare, including last year’s The Favourite. (Perhaps one reason she hasn’t decamped for comic book fare is because she’s been there, done that, having played Gwen Stacy in the Amazing Spider-Man diptych.) That her idea of a blockbuster is a punk Cruella de Vil speaks volumes of where she wants her career to go.
Cruella is currently scheduled for May 28, 2021, i.e., Memorial Day weekend.
