Anne Boleyn, starring Jodie Turner-Smith, is expected to air on the UK’s Channel 5 later this year. Previously, we saw a still photo of JTS as the erstwhile queen, and now we have a shot of her in motion, walking down a hall:

 

Variety also has a new image of JTS as Anne and Mark Stanley as Henry VIII. The lighting continues to upset me. I mentioned the crap lighting in my first post on this subject and several people took precious time from their lives that they will not get back to tell me that the bad lighting isn’t because of racism, but because the Tudor era was just plain dark! Maybe it was, Margaret, but I’ve seen a lot of Tudor-era portraiture that is perfectly legible, including Portrait of an African Man by Jan Jansz Mostaert and Portrait of an African Woman Holding a Clock by Annabile Carracci, both painted during the Tudor period and both utilizing good light. Cinema and still photography have an issue with properly lighting non-white skin, it’s a systemic issue that everyone should be working correct. 

 

Anyway, I’m still excited to see JTS play Anne Boleyn, mostly because she’s a great actress and it should be a good performance, but also because it is causing a lot of people with tiny minds to melt down. Go into any comment section about JTS playing Anne Boleyn and look at the sheer number of people telling on themselves. It is truly amazing how many people cannot WAIT to tell you who they really are.

One thing we won’t see, though, is JTS as an elf in The Witcher prequel, The Witcher: Blood Origin. As per Deadline, she has had to exit the series due to scheduling conflicts. Apparently, the production start got pushed back, creating the conflict (perhaps with her next film project, Borderland, with Felicity Jones and John Boyega?). That sucks for Blood Origin because I am no longer interested in it. I enjoyed The Witcher as dumb fun entertainment, but I’m not, say, stalking cast Instas and relentlessly searching hashtags for any and every scrap of news about the next season, as I am with Bridgerton. Unless it stars someone I feel compelled to watch, like JTS, I don’t really care about a prequel series. Witcher nerds will disagree, of course, but I do wonder what the appeal of The Witcher is beyond that catchy tune and Henry Cavill’s A+ himbo performance. Guess we’ll find out with the prequel. 

Attached- JTS and Joshua Jackson together in New York the other day.