‘Mouse Guard’ Movie Adds ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Star Sonoya Mizuno

There are certainly no shortage of comic book adaptations that are on their way to the big screen, including David Petersen’s beloved Mouse Guard series. And now, we know the latest star who will be bringing the film adaptation to life.

According to a new report from Deadline, Sonoya Mizuno has been cast as the “title character” in the upcoming Mouse Guard movie. It’s unclear exactly what character that could be a reference to, as there are an array of female characters in the original comic.

Mizuno most recently played Araminta Lee in Crazy Rich Asians, and has previously appeared in Annihilation, Ex Machina, and Maniac. She will join Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, Giancarlo Esposito, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.

The film, which will be directed by Wes Ball, will have a sizeable budget and use the same WETA technology that was used to bring the apes to life in the most-recent Planet of the Apes trilogy to recreate the animals from Petersen’s world.

“Not to make any news or anything, but I think that will be my next movie,” Petersen explained in a previous interview. “I kind of went off after this movie, had a vacation and was sort of dreaming about what could be next, but if all goes according to plan this might be it. It could be pretty special, actually. We’re just in the early stages, of course, but it’s gonna be a giant friggin’ movie. My next movie is probably going to cost what my last three movies combined cost. It’s kinda crazy, because it’s going to be one giant visual effects movie, essentially. It’s a fairly beloved little comic series, same as Maze Runner in a lot of ways. There’s a lot of people who love these books.”

“The trick with this one is we have to thread that needle with tone,” he explained. “I’m not interested in doing a DreamWorks or Pixar-type movie, I’m interested in doing something closer to Planet of the Apes where you’re really gonna nail characters and show the harsh reality of what they live in. It’s gonna be a little bit of both, probably, but at the same time because of the cost I need as big an audience as possible. So I want 10-year olds to see this as much as 40 and 50-year olds, you know? That’s the needle we have to thread, but for me personally… the way Star Wars appealed to me as a kid growing up hit that tone in a weird way. It appealed to the kid in everybody but still took itself seriously. That’s really exciting to me, that kind of film, that kind of target, but obviously set in this really harsh world of mice and swords.”