Former Last Man Standing star Kaitlyn Dever’s next movie will have her starring in an unexpected environment. Dever stars in Rosaline, a comedic take on William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet produced by 20th Century Studios for Hulu. The first photo of Dever in the title role was released on Friday, during Disney+ Day. Rosaline will be released on Hulu in 2022.
Rosaline is based on Rebecca Serle’s novel When You Were Mine, which tells the story of Romeo & Juliet from the perspective of Juliet’s cousin, Rosaline. She is described as a “sharp, but idealistic young woman” who also dated Romeo before he started dating Juliet. At the start of the story, Rosaline is focused on winning Romeo back, but she soon decides to help the star-crossed lovers get back together again. (Of course, that doesn’t turn out so well for either of them in the end, but Rosaline doesn’t know that!)
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Karen Maine, who directed episodes of HBO Max’s Starstruck and wrote the acclaimed 2014 Jenny Slate movie Obvious Child, was hired to direct Rosaline. The script was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the same team behind (500) Days of Summer. Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) plays Juliet, and Kyle Allen (American Horror Story) plays Romeo. Bradley Whitford, Minnie Driver, and Christopher McDonald also star.
Dever, 24, has been making movies and TV shows since 2009. She shot to fame on Last Man Standing as one of Tim Allen’s on-screen daughters, but scored her breakthrough movie role in Olivia Wilde’s 2019 movie Booksmart. She recently starred in the film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen and can be seen in Hulu’s Dopesick, a limited series about the opioid crisis in the U.S.
Dopesick ran eight episodes, with the finale being released on Nov. 17. Dever starred as Betsy, who became addicted to OxyContin after her doctor (played by Michael Keaton) prescribed the medication to treat her back pain. Although Betsy is a fictional character, Dever understood Betsy came with added pressure because she represents so many real-life people who struggle with opioid addiction.
“What became so clear to me immediately when I read the script was that we were able to make a story out of it and allow people to really understand this a bit better and to open everybody’s eyes to the injustice of this crisis,” Dever recently told Entertainment Weekly. “We’re seeing it from really both sides. We’re seeing it from the Purdue Pharma/Sackler family side, and then also getting a glimpse of how it truly affects the victims. Whenever I’m able to be a part of projects that move the needle forward or start a conversation or allow people to feel seen by a project in some way, that is a dream come true.”
