Kit Connor cast in Sam Mendes’ Oliver Twist adaptation
The Heartstopper actor stars alongside Brian Cox, Nicola Coughlan, and Daniel Kaluuya.
Heartstopper‘s Kit Connor has returned to the recording studio and and can be heard as part of the all-star cast of Sam Mendes’ upcoming Oliver Twist adaptation.
Succession’s Brian Cox, Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan, Nope’s Daniel Kaluuya, and The Man Who Fell to Earth’s Emilio Villa-Muhammad are also joining the adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic.
The 18-year-old Heartstopper star is also joined by I May Destroy You’s Paapa Essiedu, Sex Education’s Patricia Allison, and Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed, Deadline reports.
The new audio drama recounts Dickens’s classic story of a young orphan thrown into a grimy 19th-century workhouse.
Oliver (Villa-Muhammad) is a fighter and quickly joins a gang of young pickpockets led by the Artful Dodger (Elijah Wolf) and Fagin (Cox).
Kit plays Noah Claypole, a young servant to Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry who faces Oliver’s wrath after teasing him about his late mother.
Coughlan, who played Clare the loveable lesbian in Derry Girls, shared she was “delighted” with her role.
“When I read the script, it struck me that this adaptation gave the character of Nancy more depth and nuance,” she added. “I hope everyone at home gets all the feels as they come with us on her journey.”
Similarly, Mendes notes that “Dickens was the ultimate storyteller” and that the cast assembled for this adaptation is fantastic: “I’ve never heard an audio production before that is so filmic. It’s cinema for the ears.”
As well as Oliver Twist, Kit has been keeping busy ahead of new Heartstopper seasons being in production. The 18-year-old star is the lead in the film adaption of Laura Taylor Namey’s A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow. He previously voice acted in the BBC’s His Dark Materials series.
The Latinx YA novel tells the story of Lila Reyes who moves from her grandmother’s Abuela Cuban bakery in Miami to her Aunt’s inn in Winchester, London after the death of her Abuela.
Kit is joined in the cast by Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin star Maia Reficco, and La Reina del Sur‘s Kate del Castillo.
Sam Mendes’ Oliver Twist is available now on Audible.