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SYFY WIRE The School For Good and Evil

Netflix enrolls Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh in 'The School for Good and Evil'

By Benjamin Bullard
Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh

From Marvel and The Matrix to magic and myth: Netflix has just recruited a pair of veteran sci-fi stars to help lead the class in Paul Feig’s upcoming movie take on fairy tale heroes in training. Laurnce Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh have both reportedly joined the growing cast of The School for Good and Evil, the movie adaptation of author Soman Chainani’s bestselling book series.

No strangers to sci-fi and fantasy, Fishburne (The Matrix trilogy, Ant-Man and the Wasp) and Yeoh (Star Trek: Discovery, Marvel’s upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) will play a pair of key faculty figures, via Deadline. Fishburne reportedly is set to take on the role of The Schoolmaster, with Yeoh playing Professor Anemone, each a leader at the academy where kids aiming to join the next generation of fairy tale myth go to perfect — and perhaps even subvert — their supernatural gifts.

Feig, who helmed the 2016 Ghostbusters sequel, is directing as well as adapting Chainani’s debut bestseller alongside writer David Magee (Finding Neverland, Mary Poppins Returns) and Laura Solon (Let It Snow).

Laced with the very Harry Potter-esque idea that magic wielders can sort into training that taps either their good or wicked natures, the story features a pair of schools that do just that — if, that is, they can manage to enroll the right kind of students. Things get jumbled when two best friends — the good-natured Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and the darker-minded Agatha (Sofia Wylie) — each end up at the wrong place, charting unexpected courses for Sophie’s princess-like aspirations and Agatha’s path to villainy.

Fishburne and Yeoh will play colleague characters to Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington, who were previously cast as Lady Lesso (the literal “Dean of Evil”) and her goody two-shoes counterpart, “Dean of Good” Prof. Clarissa Dovey, respectively.

Netflix hasn’t said yet when it’ll induct The School for Good and Evil into its streaming class, but the movie is expected to premiere sometime in 2022. Feig already has hinted the movie will strike a balance between the sinister and the silly, saying he’s “truly excited to bring this amazing, touching, funny, and empowering world” from the book series to life.