‘Bates Motel’ Season 5 Updates: Final Run Casts Rihanna in Janet Leigh’s Iconic Role as Victim Marion Crane; Continues to Explore Norman’s Fall into Insanity

‘Bates Motel’ season 5 is set to feature Rihanna in the iconic role of Marion Crane. Marion was first adapted in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film ‘Psycho’. The new season is set to explore Norman’s continuing fall into insanity.

According to Collider, singer-songwriter Rihanna is joining the new cast as Marion Crane, a character made famous by Janet Leigh in the original psychological horror thriller film adaptation’Psycho’ directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin explained their casting choice saying, “We wanted to thrust the iconic role into a contemporary spotlight and redefine it in a meaningful and exciting new way.  We also heard Rihanna was a fan of the show, and we were huge fans of hers, so it was the perfect collision of creativity and fate.”

Rihanna also announced her involvement during a video aired at the show’s panel during the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. In the video, the 28-year old Barbadian beauty said, “Yes. Hello, Comic-Con! It’s your girl Ri-Ri and let me tell you what a bad b*tch is about to do. I’m about to check into the Bates Motel very soon. Guess what else? Guess who’s playing Marion? Yes. So all you Comic-Con fans, all you Bates Motel fans, stay tuned!”

Marion is a fictional character in Robert Bloch’s original ‘Psycho’ novel later adapted on the big screen by Leigh and perhaps one of Norman’s most memorable victims. In the novel, she is named Mary Crane and is dies after Norman decapitates her. In Hitchcock’s 1960 film, Marion is stabbed by “Mother” repeatedly during the iconic shower scene.

According to the Independent, Cuse explained that they had always wanted to cast Rihanna five years past. He said, “I read this article in which she said she was a fan of Bates Motel [so] we asked and she said yes… It was awesome. We’re really excited about it. It really feels very much like the version of the character that is different from the movie.”

He also confirmed that season 5 will delve deeper into Norman’s psychosis. He said, “The final season of the show would really be Norman in his full-blown psychopathology, more like the character in the movie - but that doesn’t mean that Norma will not have a role. In fact, she has a huge role but she’ll be Norman’s imagining of her."

During another interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cuse said, "We are going to see a version of Norman that is much closer now to the one in the movie, but the way in which he acts and the events in the story will not be the same as the movie… They will cross paths with some of the events in the movie and lead to an ultimate resolution. What that resolution is and how that plays out is something that will be not disconnected to the movie Psycho but will be very much our own story in the same way the entire series has been."

‘Bates Motel’ is a psychological horror television series intended as a prequel to Hitchcock’s original 1960 film. Since its release on March 2013 on A&E, it garnered positive reviews from critics. It stars Vera Farmiga as Norma Louise Bates, Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates, Max Thieriot as Dylan Massett, Olivia Cooke as Emma Decody, and Nestor Carbonell as Sheriff Alex Romero.