Keira Knightley will play the Sugar Plum Fairy in Disney’s upcoming adaptation of The Nutcracker.
She’ll be joined in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (an adaptation of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King) by Misty Copeland, the first African American woman to be principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater, and Morgan Freeman, according to Variety.
Interstellar star Mackenzie Foy will also feature, while Chocolat and The Cider House Rules director Lasse Hallstrom has also signed on.
Knightley has a close relationship with Disney, and starred in the company’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. She hasn’t starred in a film since 2015’s mountain-climbing drama Everest, but recently made headlines after director John Carney, who worked with her on Begin Again, criticized her.
He said: “It’s hard being a film actor, and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet.” He has since apologized for his comments.
Knightley’s next film is Collateral Beauty, in which she stars alongside Will Smith and Kate Winslet. It opens on 16 December in the US.
