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Jun 29, 2023

Casting Feyre Archeron For The Court Of Thorns & Roses TV Show: 10 Actors Who Would Be Perfect

Casting Feyre for A Court of Thorns and Roses will be tricky. Here are 10 young actresses who can pull off the complex and challenging role. Header image credit: Charlie Bowater Hulu has been quietly

Casting Feyre for A Court of Thorns and Roses will be tricky. Here are 10 young actresses who can pull off the complex and challenging role.

Header image credit: Charlie Bowater

Hulu has been quietly developing its A Court of Thorns and Roses TV show, and one big question book readers have been asking is who might be cast in the role of protagonist Feyre Archeron. A Court of Thorns and Roses tells the story of Feyre, a human huntress in an impoverished family, who accidentally killed a Fae. As payment for her debt, she's taken across the Wall, the border separating humans and Fae, to live in the Fae realm. It's the start of a story she never could have imagined for her and those she loves, particularly her sisters, Nesta and Elain.

Casting Feyre will be tricky. She's the one character around which the entire world of A Court of Thorns and Roses' cast will pivots. More than that, though, Feyre is young–only 19 when the story begins–but has the wisdom of someone much older. She's also defensive and keeps a wall up thanks to her years of hardship and having to provide for her family, but hides a sensitive artist inside. Finding an actress who can pull those layers off will be challenging. Here are 10 young actresses who could be great in the role of Feyre Archeron in A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Lucy Boynton is a rising star in the UK and the U.S. thanks to her excellent work in various TV shows and movies like Sing Street and The Blackcoat's Daughter. It's the latter that hints at what she could do in the role of Feyre Archeron. Boynton played an isolated, lonely girl in Blackcoat's Daughter, so she'd be able to capture Feyre's loneliness at the start of A Court of Thorns and Roses. She's also tackled darker subject matter, having played the daughter of a cult leader in Apostle and an addict in Gypsy, so Boynton would certainly be able to tap into the difficult relationship Feyre has with her father and sisters.

It's hard to think of a better choice for a character who has to be able to straddle the line between scrappy survivor and elegant beauty than Jodie Comer. Comer has shown she can handle herself in any action sequence or physical role thanks to her award-winning turn as Villanelle in Killing Eve, and as Millie, a.k.a. Molotovgirl, in Free Guy. Feyre eventually has to step into the role of leader and queen in A Court of Thorns and Roses, though; Comer has the strength and charm in her acting that would serve her perfectly in the role as Feyre evolves.

Daisy Edgar-Jones is one of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood for a reason. Edgar-Jones excels at complex emotional roles, such as her American breakout role in Normal People or her turn in Where the Crawdads Sing as outcast Kya. Much of A Court of Thorns and Roses is told from Feyre's internal perspective, so it's necessary to get an actress who can convey the nuance of what's going on inside of her character without having to exposition dump. With her deft handling of

Feyre Archeron is a queen even before she knows her fate in A Court of Thorns and Roses. As Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon, Olivia Cooke is no stranger to playing a queen who has to navigate complicated court politics while fighting for what she loves. While some may think she's better suited to the role of Elain, Cooke has also shown she's made of tougher stuff in roles in Ready Player One, The Sound of Metal, and Bates Motel. And with her sharpening her claws as Alicent in future seasons of House of the Dragon, she'll be more than ready to tackle Feyre in the delayed Court of Thorns and Roses show.

Peyton List is well-known to American audiences thanks to her work in Cobra Kai playing the tough and scrappy Tory. Thanks to that role, it's clear that List would do a fantastic job capturing the scrappy survivalist part of Feyre, the piece of her that refuses to just lay down and die. But List has also shown Tory's vulnerable side as a sensitive girl who has had to build up her armor to keep the world from hurting her. This is the embodiment of Feyre in the first Court of Thorns and Roses book, and List has shown she can more than handle it.

Joey King wasn't originally known for her action-oriented roles, but 2022's The Princess changed that. King literally and physically slayed in the role of a warrior princess defending her castle and those she loves, which are great attributes for someone stepping into the role of Feyre Archeron, the protector of her family and realm. As someone who has been acting from a young age, King is quite assured and confident when she's on-screen. It's a great quality for Feyre, who has to hold her own once in the land of Prythian.

Maddie Ziegler may not be as well-known to audiences on this list as some of the other names, but she's a powerhouse star in the making. Some may question this choice of having her on the list, seeing as how Ziegler got her start in dancing, not acting. However, part of Feyre's characterization is her physicality. Whether she's hunting in the woods or exploring her new powers, Feyre carries herself with the strength and grace of a dancer–the exact qualities Ziegler has. Ziegler isn't a slouch in acting, though. Her role in 2021's The Fallout won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW and earned her praise for her stoic but sensitive portrayal of Mia, a teenager navigating the aftermath of a school shooting.

Related: A Court Of Thorns & Roses' Show Will Finally Fill A Major Fantasy TV Gap

Dafne Keen may be a bit of an outlier on this list, but it all depends on how the Court of Thorns and Roses TV show decides to go with its casting. There are moments, especially early in the story when Feyre still has her defenses up toward everyone and everything, that Feyre comes across as almost feral, such as when she hides butter knives in her bedroom to defend herself. With her roles as Laura in Logan and the wild Lyra in His Dark Materials, Keen can capture the wild, fierce part of Feyre that never quite goes away, even as she comes into her own and becomes a queen.

With her role as Lexi Howard in the critically acclaimed Euphoria, Maude Apatow has shown she has what it takes to tap into the complex character of Feyre. Like Feyre, Lexi is an observer and a diplomat. However, she hides a deep passion and doesn't hesitate to speak up when she feels something is wrong, or to fight for what she believes in. Those are all character qualities that would lend themselves well to playing Feyre in the Court of Thorns and Roses TV show, a character who starts out as quiet and defensive before slowly coming out of her shell.

There's basically nothing that Saoirse Ronan can't do on-screen, and her impressive list of projects proves as much. She's shown she can be feisty and independent, as she was in Little Women with the role of Jo March. She can do ruthless action, like in the titular role of Hanna. She can be regal, having played a queen in Mary Queen of Scots. She can capture the prickliness of a complicated family dynamic, as she did in Lady Bird. And she can do romantic drama, as she proved with Brooklyn. A Court of Thorns and Roses' Feyre Archeron is a complicated and dynamic character, and there are few young working actresses who are as dynamic as Saoirse Ronan.

Alisha Grauso is a features editor at Screen Rant, as well as the editorial lead for Atom Insider with Atom Tickets. Previously, she was the editor-at-large and editor-in-chief for Movie Pilot. Her work can be found, or expertise cited, at Forbes, CNN, CBS, Variety, CNBC, Marvel, Business Insider, Birth.Movies.Death, Film School Rejects, and more. She's also the co-leader of California Freelance Writers United, a grassroots organization advocating for smarter legislation and forward-thinking labor law for freelance writers in California and across the country. Alisha has a Master of Arts in English from the University of Dallas and spent her years before jumping into entertainment journalism as an adjunct professor, a background that has come in handy in her editing roles. As a kid, her nose was always in a book or eyes glued to a screen, so it was inevitable she'd end up in two different worlds that are all about storytelling. When she's not working, you can find her on Twitter chirping about movies & TV, books, politics, ADHD, history, and sharing pictures of her cats @alishagrauso. Or you can contact her directly at alishag(at)screenrant(dot)com.