Lily James Is Busy

Lily James has been working consistently since she was 21 back in 2010, although she first came to my attention in Baby Driver, Edgar Wright’s otherwise fantastic action film (that’s now marred by the presence of Kevin Spacey). She was also apparently a regular fixture on Downton Abbey for a few years, got her first big break starring in the live-action Cinderella, and bounced around in charming mid-tier fare like Yesterday, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, and Rebecca before landing an Emmy nomination for her fantastic portrayal of Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy.

Of course, James also dealt with the tabloids, as well, having dated Matt Smith for five years and a very public scandal amid rumors of an affair with Dominic West (who was married).

However, beyond the devastating The Iron Claw, James has had a run of bad luck since Pam & Tommy, appearing in three films that didn’t go anywhere (Finally Dawn with Joe Keery), Greedy People with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and another film called Relay, allegedly due out this week, that looks like it’s been sitting on a shelf since the ’70s.

It looks like things are about to turn back around for James. In September, she’s due to star in a limited series for Hulu called Swiped, where she plays Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and former CEO of dating platform Bumble and the youngest CEO to take a company public (she was 31). It’s another one of those tech disruptor series,

Beyond that, next April, Lily James will star alongside Pierce Brosnan as a mountain climber in a remake of Cliffhanger, from director Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) and perhaps an unusual choice for the screenwriter for a blockbuster, Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night).

James recently wrapped Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, and she is currently in production on Harmonia, about the daughters (played by James and Bella Ramsey) of a cult leader (Carrie Coon) who try to bring her back home.

Beyond doing some voice work in Angry Birds 3 (there was an Angry Birds 2?), she also has three more movies in pre-production: Photo Booth with Rupert Friend; Let the Evil Go West, a horror film that reteams her with her Tommy & Pam co-star Sebastian Stan; and another project announced this week called Subversion. In that, she’ll star alongside Chris Hemsworth in a submarine movie. They don’t make enough submarine movies anymore.

All of which is to say: We’ll be seeing a lot more of Lily James in the coming years, beginning this September with Swiped.