Hollywood is full of Princess Dianas right now (and we’re not talking about Wonder Woman). The latest season of*The Crown* had Emma Corrin playing the young Diana Spencer, while Elizabeth Debicki is set to take over the role in later seasons of the show. Elsewhere, Netflix is set to stream new musical Diana, starring Jeanna de Waal as the Royal princess, later this year. And now, Kristen Stewart is the latest star to make her mark on the former Princess Of Wales, taking on the lead role in Pablo Larraín’s new film Spencer.
The first image from the film has been released – see above – with Stewart bearing an uncanny likeness to the real Diana (all the more surprising since Stewart herself isn’t exactly a lookalike). “Spencer is a dive inside an emotional imagining of who Diana was at a pivotal turning point in her life,” Stewart says in a statement released alongside the first image. “It is a physical assertion of the sum of her parts, which starts with her given name; Spencer. It is a harrowing effort for her to return to herself, as Diana strives to hold onto what the name Spencer means to her.”
This isn’t the first time Larraín has concerned himself with the story of a powerful woman in the public eye facing great scrutiny and tragedy, having previously helmed the Oscar-nominated Jackie, starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy. The film has a screenplay from Steven Knight, the writer-director behind Tom Hardy-in-a-car pic Locke, and executive producer on Peaky Blinders. The film is shooting now in Germany, with a view to release in autumn this year – nearly 25 years since Diana’s death.
Stewart has proven a major screen talent in recent years, and with Larraín and Knight on board here’s hoping Spencer turns out better than 2013’s ill-fated Naomi Watts-starring Diana.