Pinhead, Reimagined: Jamie Clayton Assumes “Hellraiser” Role In Hulu’s Take On Clive Barker Classic
This Pinhead is quite the lady.
Hulu released a trailer for its upcoming Hellraiser reboot, featuring Jamie Clayton as the terrifying Cenobite known as Pinhead.
In the trailer, Pinhead terrorizes a young woman named Riley, played by Odessa A’zion. The movie follows Riley as she faces two demons: she struggles with addiction and finds an ancient puzzle box whose sole purpose is to summon Cenobites, sadistic supernatural beings that come to Earth from another dimension.
The original 1987 film, adapted from the book by horror legend Clive Barker, had Doug Bradley playing the leader of the Cenobites, called Pinhead in the later sequels. The Hellraiser franchise has spanned across four theatrical films, six straight-to-home movies and multiple comic books. Jamie Clayton (Sense8) is taking on the role for the reboot, coming in October.
Director David Bruckner told Entertainment Weekly that he had planned all along to make the character of Pinhead female in this outing. “We felt a kind of anticipation around the fans to reimagine the character,” he said of the decision to cast Clayton, who is a trans woman. “We knew we wanted Pinhead to be a woman. Jamie was just the right person for the role. A person’s identity can be really exciting for a role in many ways, but I have to emphasize that Jamie absolutely killed; that’s how we got there.”
The rest of the cast includes Adam Faison, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Aoife Hinds, Jason Liles, Yinka Olorunnife, Selina Lo, Zachary Hing, and Kit Clarke, with Goran Visnjic (The Boys) and Hiam Abbass (Succession). Barker is involved in the reboot, serving as one of the film’s producers. The script is by Ben Collins (The Night House) and Luke Piotrowski, assisted by David S. Goyer (the Blade and Dark Knight trilogies).
Hellraiser premieres on Hulu on October 7th.