Could Kate Beckinsale one day reprise her role as the infamous Death Dealer?
That was the question posed to Beckinsale during her recent interview with Variety, in which she confirmed that, no, she won’t be reprising the role of Selene for a future Underworld movie, proving that Blood Wars really was the final nail in the coffin for Beckinsale’s Death Dealer. If nothing else, the Lycans can breathe a sigh of relief…
Asked straight-up if she’d ever consider a return to the cult horror series, the actress conceded: “I wouldn’t return. I’ve done plenty of those.”
She continued by elaborating on what drew her to the Underworld series in the first place, saying:
I’ve done indie movies where I’m sitting on a piece of folded carpet and it was wonderful. I’ve done great big movies that were the worst misery of my life. It all depends. At university, I studied Russian and French. I never studied drama, so I always felt like from the beginning of my career that it was an apprenticeship. That freed me up to try a lot of things. It gave me a lot of latitude. I started out in the indie space. I never anticipated doing one of those heavy-weight, very physical franchise things. It was scary to see myself on movie posters on the side of every single bus.
So, it seems that after five movies in the space of 13 years, Kate Beckinsale is ostensibly finished with the Underworld series, leaving the immediate future of this horror IP up in the air.
Granted, last we reported series creator Len Wiseman had flirted with a possible TV spinoff, which would’ve involved a “big departure” from the core film series in that it would’ve focused more on the characters and their unending war than the stylistic comic book elements synonymous with Beckinsale’s suite of movies.
There hasn’t been an update on the mooted project for quite some time, so right now, it’s unclear what comes next for the Underworld franchise as it begins to adjust to life without Selene. More on this story as it develops.