Baz Luhrmann casts 18-year-old Isla Johnston as Joan of Arc in new biopic
Baz Luhrmann has cast an 18-year-old actor named Isla Johnston to take on the leading role of Joan of Arc in his new biopic of the saint.
The teenage actor previously appeared as the younger version of Anya Taylor-Joy’s character in the Netflix smash hit The Queen’s Gambit and is also set to star in Nicholas Cage’s upcoming horror movie The Carpenter’s Son.
However, having now been selected to lead the cast in the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s adaptation of the life story of Joan of Arc, the role is bound to propel Johnston to a new height of stardom.
Announcing the news in a recent interview with Vogue, Johnston said she faced the prospect of the role with a certain element of trepidation as “obviously, there’s the physical challenges—the fighting and the riding, but I can learn that and I can work on that,” before adding that she wants to do the character justice. She added, “No one in history quite knows how she did what she did.”
Luhrmann is also keen to reflect this within the film, which he is writing alongside the playwright Ava Pickett, but still has not been officially given a title, by casting a teenager in the part of Joan of Arc, who was 17 years old when she received a calling to save the people of France.
Subsequently, her actions allowed the French monarchy to gain back control from the English in 1429, without which the country would not be its own independent nation today. Luhrmann said: “If that happened, we’d all be eating English sarnies in France,” before joking, “There’d be no more baguettes. Can you imagine that devastating reality?”
Details on further casting, title, and a release date for Luhrmann’s Joan of Arc biopic have not yet been revealed, although it is expected to begin filming in 2026.
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