“Cruel Intentions” showrunners say they're open to movie alum Selma Blair appearing in season 2
"We're certainly not closed to it, but I think we have to make sure it makes sense," showrunner Sara Goodman says.
Selma Blair is ready to cue up "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and reprise her Cruel Intentions movie role in the new Prime Video TV series — and the showrunners are open to bringing her in for a cameo.
"If we get a second season," executive producer Phoebe Fisher tells Entertainment Weekly.
But Fisher and co-showrunner Sara Goodman would only consider bringing Blair's naive movie character, Cecile Caldwell, into the show if it works within their new story. "We're not going to do stunt casting," Goodman tells EW. "We're just not going to do it. If there's a place for Cecile to be in the show, then we will, of course, consider it."
Related: Cruel Intentions EPs explain why movie alum Sean Patrick Thomas plays a totally new character
Blair recently made headlines when she told Variety that she hadn't been asked to appear in the Cruel Intentions TV show but would be down for a cameo as her film role. However, the new series is not a sequel or a remake of the cult classic 1999 movie that also starred Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillippe (which was based on the classic novel Dangerous Liaisons) but rather an updated version of the story about two twisted step-siblings who will do anything to get their way: Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess). After a hazing incident threatens to destroy all Greek Life on their college campus, they make a bet to save it that involves seducing innocent Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith), the daughter of the vice president of the United States who is an incoming freshman interested in pledging a sorority.
Sean Patrick Thomas, who played Cecile's love interest/music tutor Ronald Clifford in the movie, is the only Cruel Intentions alum who appears in the TV series — however, he's playing a totally new role as Professor Chadwick, a history teacher at the fictional Manchester College. If Blair would appear in the show, the producers would want her to reprise her movie role.
"I think [Blair] is so much Cecile that to just bring her in as someone else doesn't work," Goodman says. "And Cecile has to have a role in our world. Even if it's for an episode, she has to have a role, so we'll have to see where that goes. We're certainly not closed to it, but I think we have to make sure it makes sense."
"Organically in our cinematic universe that we've created," Fisher adds.
Related: Cruel Intentions exclusive first-look photos take you inside Greek life
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Goodman and Fisher are both "enormous" fans of the original 1999 movie as well as the book upon which it was based, which is why they were excited to create a new version of it for TV.
"It felt like there wasn't anything like this on television right now," Goodman says. "It really felt for us like there was a huge opportunity to tell a sexy, funny, boundary-pushing, irreverent story in a new world with new characters, just like Cruel Intentions had done with Dangerous Liaisons. And in a new format. So when the opportunity presented itself from Sony and Amazon, I feel like both of us were hesitant to take it on only because of how iconic it is, but we could not say no."
Fisher adds with a laugh, "Sara and I both have a very similar taste in what we like to watch on TV, which is just ruthless, sexy mess. We just wanted to make our version of that to bring it back to TV."
Cruel Intentions premieres Nov. 21 on Prime Video.