Jeremy Strong’s next move? Bambi, according to one Twitter user. That inspired bit of fan casting came about after anonymous sources gave away which director was in the running for the upcoming live-action remake’s top job. The choice is what you get when you combine Disney’s commitment to live-action remakes with its penchant for poaching prestige art-house directors to service tentpole fare. Sarah Polley, director of the indelible drama Women Talking, is in talks to steer a live-action remake of 1942’s weepy environmental fable Bambi, per Deadline. Good for her! While Polley negotiates her Bambi bag, we can only assume she’s sneaking in provisions that give her total creative freedom to transform the already affecting tale into a serious, heartrending project with serious actors. The girls deserve a gritty origin-story version of the tale about a fawn heir to the forest throne, traumatized by the murder of his mother and in thrall to his childhood friend. We need a film where the press tour is just stories about how Jeremy Strong lived in Utah’s Uinta National Forest for months walking around on all fours and eating tree bark in the dead of winter. More than anything, we are owed stories about how sick Jared Leto was when he lost the role of Thumper to Austin Butler, even after the Method actor learned to chatter his teeth like a rabbit and poop tiny pellets. We rubbed our two brain cells together and came up with some more Bambi casting ideas, below.
Jeremy Strong as Bambi
No one plays a sad, tortured heir better than Strong. He can conjure so many degrees of loss in his eyes — just the thought of an extreme close-up of his face after witnessing the death of Bambi’s mom is harrowing (and would probably be similar to Kendall’s gaze after losing Waystar). He’ll appear only if he survives his self-inflicted Bambi boot camp, though. Someone captured a deer eating a snake whole earlier this week. Can Strong go full Method on this one?
Lady Gaga as Faline
If Lady Gaga can channel Ally Maine’s ability to love someone completely damaged into the role of Bambi’s love interest, then we’re cooking with grease.
Austin Butler as Thumper
Thumper is an overly energetic himbo type who sometimes doesn’t realize he’s making fun of his best friend. Butler can do this. Like, he was in Zoey 101.
Lee Pace as Flower
Imagine him as a bashful little forest creature.
Willem Dafoe as Friend Owl
Dafoe can do his wise-and-kooky bit.
Daniel Kaluuya as the Great Prince of the Forest
He can summon the majesty needed for a stag charged with leading the critters against the violent incursions of Man. Plus, we’d like to see him play a dad, for science.
Michelle Williams as Bambi’s Mom
Williams’s maternal energy has range. In Certain Women, she’s a frustrated wife intent on getting her husband to see how undermined she is when it comes to raising their daughter. Manchester by the Sea’s Williams is a mother bubbling with grief in constant danger of boiling over. So yeah, she can play moms in various scenarios. Mostly, though, she’s kind of Bambi-coded.
Viola Davis as Aunt Ena
Faline’s mom appears only briefly in the original film to encourage the young deer to greet Bambi. Davis would eat up this role — she has the tender gravitas of a mom trying to get her kids to play nice with the neighborhood children. Or else.
Frances McDormand as Mrs. Rabbit
Mrs. Rabbit is Thumper’s mother, and she appears in the film to scold her little bunny son for making fun of the young Bambi’s wobbly walk. The Polley version could use McDormand’s comic chops for some much-needed relief, maybe even making Mrs. Rabbit absolutely neurotic à la Linda Litzke in Burn After Reading.
Barry Keoghan as Man
Killing of a Sacred Deer is literally on his résumé. He may even be overqualified to play the species that killed Bambi’s mom.
