Back in July 2016, A&E announced that Rihanna would appear in the fifth and final season of its Psycho-inspired drama Bates Motel as Marion Crane, the character made famous in the film both by actress Janet Leigh and by the iconic scene where she gets the heck stabbed out of her in the shower by an unhinged Norman Bates. This news was met with a collective “Wait, what?” by many entertainment experts (or at least by, like, me), because even five or six years ago, the idea of one of the world’s biggest pop stars appearing on a drama on A&E would have been lunacy. And yet, here we are.
In any event, now we have visual proof that it was not all some hoax, in the form of her brief appearance in the above teaser and the two preview images below. She looks kind of like a witch, with her hood up like that. Let’s just assume that’s true. “Rihanna To Play Evil Witch On Bates Motel.” Aaaaand print.
As far as if her version of Marion will meet the same stabby fate as the one in the movie, well, not so fast. Executive producer Carlton Cuse threw a wrench in that back when this was all announced.
Cuse also said not to expect “Bates Motel” to end the same way as the Hitchcock film ends. “I think that would be a real letdown and uninspired on our part. We are going to cross through some of the mythology of the movie, ‘Psycho,’ but our story will have its own distinct ending that is just like our show, it’s very much its own creation. What happens to Norman is not something that we’re going to say here but his fate is not exactly the same as it is in the movie.”
Working theory: Evil witch Rihanna cooks him in her cauldron and flies away on her broom. Heard it here first!
