Universal have wisely rethought their approach to rebooting the studio’s stable of classic monsters in the wake of the Dark Universe debacle. Rumors of behind-the-scenes disagreements plagued the production of Tom Cruise vehicle The Mummy, which went on to suffer from so-so box office business and scathing reviews, virtually killing any attempt to relaunch their iconic characters as star-driven action blockbusters.
It was announced earlier this year that the next set of reboots were already in motion and The Invisible Man, which once had Johnny Depp attached to star in the lead role, would be first out of the gate with genre specialists Blumhouse producing and Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell behind the camera.
The Handmaid’s Tale and Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss was the first name to join the cast, with speculation that she could even be playing the title role quickly proving to be false. A Wrinkle in Time breakout Storm Reid soon boarded the project along with Aldis Hodge and Harriet Dyer, but with shooting set to start at the end of this month, there was still no news on who would be playing The Invisible Man himself.
Today, however, we’ve received word that Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who shot to prominence starring as Luke Crain in Netflix smash hit The Haunting of Hill House, had been cast in the lead of The Invisible Man reboot. One of the streaming service’s biggest success stories of last year, Hill House was unanimously praised for the strength of its ensemble cast, of which Jackson-Cohen was a huge part.
The series was a great showcase for the 32 year-old’s range as an actor, who has previous ties to Universal’s back catalogue having played Jonathan Harker in the short-lived NBC series Dracula. Jackson-Cohen has shown he can do some great work within the confines of horror, and now The Invisible Man will give him the chance to prove he’s capable of leading a studio-backed genre movie.