The manga series Saint Seiya comes to life on the big screen this weekend with Knights of the Zodiac. The 2023 new movie release not only stars the likes of X-Men’s Famke Janssen and Game of Thrones’ Sean Bean, but Jumanji actress Madison Iseman, who memorably played Bethany, who hilariously gets stuck inside the avatar of Jack Black’s Professor Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon in 2017’s Welcome to the Jungle. The rising star spoke with CinemaBlend about her latest role.
In Knights of the Zodiac, plays the dual roles of Sienna and the Olympian goddess Athena. During our very own Sean O’Connell’s interview with Madison Iseman about the movie she spoke to her experience making it. In her words:
We were talking about what our hardest scenes were to film, and I always said, for this film specifically, because usually it’s something physical, but in this film, it’s the exposition because there’s a lot going on, and you want to be as clear as possible. And for people who might not know Saint Seya and might not know Knights of the Zodiac, you want to be able to lay it out as simply as possible.
Masami Kurumada’s Saint Seiya franchise had its original run from 1986 to 1990, and has since become one of the best-selling manga series, selling over 50 million copies. Even so, as the actress shared, not everyone is going to know and connect with the lore of the story off the bat, so it was a challenge for herself as an actor to make it accessible for everyone. As she continued:
And, there’s a lot of exposition in this film, and the hope is that people can catch on to what it is. But I think the goal is, I hope people are just open to using their imagination because it’s lore, it’s magic, it’s fantasy, and sometimes you say some crazy words and stuff that you hope makes sense to people.
Knights of the Zodiac
Release Date: May 12, 2023
Directed By: Tomek Bagiński
Written By: Josh Campbell, Matt Stuecken & Kiel Murray
Starring: Mackenyu, Famke Janssen, Madison Iseman, Diego Tinoco, Mark Dacascos, Nick Stahl and Sean Bean
Rating: PG-13 for action/violence
Runtime: 112 minutes
Knights of the Zodiac sees the goddess of war reincarnate as Madison Iseman’s character of Sienna, and a street orphan named Seiya, played by Japanese actor Mackenyu, learns that he is destined to protect her and also save the world. Iseman’s latest role follows the actress leading the I Know What You Did Last Summer series, which was among 2022 series that we cancelled, as well as appearing in an episode on Hulu’s American Horror Stories called “Necro.”
After finding its first audiences in Japan the past two weeks, Knights of the Zodiac arrives to U.S. theaters this weekend alongside Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s second weekend after winning its debut at the box office. While the movie has been poorly received by critics, early audiences are enjoying it so much more so far.
During CinemaBlend’s interviews with the Knights of the Zodiac cast, Madison Iseman also shared that she hasn’t heard anything about another Jumanji movie, but gushed about how the franchise changed her life. Famke Janssen who plays the antagonist Guraad, also caught up with us about a possible return as Jean Grey after her iconic role in the X-Men movies. You can check out Knights of the Zodiac in theaters now.