Violet Sorrengail is a fashion girl

The biggest casting question in Hollywood – Bond – has yet to be answered. But just before Bond speculation took over the last couple of weeks, there was another maybe not as big but still big casting reveal: the leads of the Fourth Wing adaptation.

The Fourth Wing book series, by Rebecca Yarros, is romantasy, and I’m not saying you have to read the novels (three of a planned five books have been released so far), but some awareness is required if you’re trying to keep up with pop culture. Because Hollywood is always looking for the next big franchise along the lines of Harry Potter and Twilight and The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones and Divergent, etc etc.

Fourth Wing, or the Empyrean series, has a huuuuuge following. The adaptation was only a matter of time – Michael B Jordan’s production company is behind it, the series has been in development at Prime Video for at least two years. Prime Video has built a solid audience for young adult romance – so Violet Sorrengail, the main character, is in position to be the new Bella Swan x Belly Conklin.

Needless to say, given the popularity of the books, there was massive interest in who would be cast as Violet and the male lead, Xaden Riorsen. They finally confirmed it last month: Esther McGregor is Violet and Emilio Sakraya is Xaden. Emilio’s been in the mix for a while, I posted about this a year and a half ago. There were a lot of fans campaigning for him – he indulged them, and it worked.

As for Esther, she’s perhaps best known for being in We Were Liars, and interestingly, the way I see where her career is right now, it’s not unlike where Kristen Stewart and Jennifer Lawrence were at before Twilight and The Hunger Games took them to the next level. I’ve interviewed Esther before – she was fun and quirky, with a slightly punky look about her, and also the bone structure and features to play Violet: expressive eyes, delicate features…

Though Violet’s most distinctive feature is her hair – silver tips and long. Xaden, who becomes her lover, obviously, is obsessed with it. So the hair and wig work on this series has to be first class because this is definitely something book readers will come in expecting.

Esther’s own hair is actually pretty funky. I’m very into it.

That was last year, but it looked similar back in May:

I’m talking about her hair because Esther was at the CFDA Fashion Awards last night and the only note I have about her look is the hair. I wish she’d kept her bangs instead of pulling it all back in a loose knot with the tendrils. The outfit, Thom Browne, is amazing and on the weird side so a hairstyle with more edge, which is how she typically styles it, would have worked better for me.

Still, well before Fourth Wing probably makes her a household name, we already know that Esther is a fashion girl. She does not gravitate toward the safe looks and I hope that doesn’t change when it comes time for her to promote herself as Violet.