Esther will return in upcoming Orphan prequel Orphan: First Kill, with Isabelle Fuhrman reprising the role and William Brent Bell (The Boy, Separation) directing the new movie.

Orphan: First Kill has been acquired for release by Paramount, but we don’t yet have a release date at this time. It’s coming soon, however, and it’s been officially rated “R.”

In Orphan: First Kill, “Leena Klammer (aka Esther) orchestrates a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. But Leena’s new life as “Esther” comes with an unexpected wrinkle and pits her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost.”

For starters, how exactly is Isabelle Fuhrman, who’s now 24 years old, going to play Esther on screen again, a character who looks like a child despite actually being an adult woman?

Fuhram explains to THR this week, “I love the challenge of being able to play a kid because that’s never historically been done in cinema — I was like looking all this up, because I love looking up old movie history and things like that, and I was like, ‘Oh, an adult has never reprised the role that they played as a child,’ Will Smith, for example, recently did that movie [Gemini Man] where they de-age somebody, but to reprise a role that you literally did as a kid as an adult has never been done before. It’s kind of impossible. And we did it.”

The actress continues, “We didn’t use special effects, we didn’t use any crazy makeup tricks. And I think that’s what makes the movie work, is because you really can’t figure out how I look like a [9-year-old], but I do. And it’s really creepy.

“I was there every day. I know all the tricks, and I’m so thoroughly disturbed right now, because I somehow am nine years old again, and it doesn’t make any sense… I was like, how do I revisit this part and then also convincingly play a kid? Because that was the easy part last time, the hard part was trying to be an adult. Now the hard part is I have to be kid.”

William Brent Bell had explained the process last year, “It’s all old school techniques: forced perspective, camera angles, where we put the light.”

When can you expect the Orphan prequel? We’ll keep you posted! In the meantime, revisit the 2009 original with our own Horror Queers with special guest Sade Sellers. Stream the podcast episode below.