Few suspected that when A&E decided to do a prequel series based on Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho,’ it would be as successful as ‘Bates Motel’ has turned out to be. Now heading into its 5th and final season, the show is rapidly approaching its endgame leading to some iconic scenes straight out of the source movie, including the inclusion of some characters that had yet to make their way over from the movie. Chief among them is the character of Marion Crane, famously played by Janet Leigh in ‘Psycho,’ who will be portrayed by Rihanna in a very different interpretation of the character in ‘Bates Motel.’ According to executive producer Kerry Ehrin who spoke recently with EW, the Marion Crane story will echo what we saw in ‘Psycho,’ but will still be different:
“We’re taking threads of that story and definitely using them so it’s recognizable, it’s just where we go with it is very different…It’s this collision of Bates Motel storytelling and then Marion Crane showing up into that. He’s [Norman’s] in a very fragile and lonely place, and Marion Crane is a charismatic woman, she’s super present when she’s with him and she’s very attractive — all those things are exactly what he needs right at this moment.”
Sources claim that Rihanna’s character will have a multi-episode arc on the series, meaning Marion will not be killed off quite as quickly as in ‘Psycho’ apparently, but the most recent trailer for ‘Bates Motel’ season 5 (which you can check out below) definitely hints that the show will definitely get to that infamous shower scene, though how much of it they will faithfully recreate for the series is anyone’s guess. Trying to do it shot-for-shot did not work out well when they tried to redo ‘Psycho’ in the early 2000’s, and I doubt a show like ‘Bates Motel’ would go that direction anyway.
What do you think of Rihanna playing Marion Crane? Are you excited to see ‘Bates Motel’ enter this sacred territory? Share your thoughts on the show and its endgame in the comments below!
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter (@starfro67)
