All good and evildoers rejoice! Filming for the adaptation of The School for Good and Evil novel has begun! With the film scheduled to arrive on Netflix in 2022, we’ll be here to provide all the major updates for the movie, including filming updates, trailer releases, casting news, and the Netflix release date.
The School for Good and Evil is an upcoming Netflix Original fantasy drama based on the best-selling novels of the same name by author Soman Chainani. Directing the movie is Paul Feig who previously directed the Ghostbusters reboot, Spy, The Heat, and episodes of The Office.
Chainani has been given credit for also writing the screenplay for the movie, alongside David Magee. Malia Scotch Marmo, screenplay writer of Hook has also been given a writing credit.
What is the production status of The School for Good and Evil?
Official Production Status: Post-Production (Last Updated: 22/11/2021)
The Belfast Telegraph reported on April 27th, 2021 that filming for The School for Good and Evil had begun, with shooting taking place at Belfast Harbour Studios.
Filming for The School of Good and Evil taking place at St Peters Church of Ireland in Belfast, Northern Ireland. – Courtesy of Belfast Telegraph and Stephen Hamilton
Fans on Twitter have shared some behind-the-scenes photos of the film, with pictures of the cast’s chairs and their names revealed.
looks like they just started filming netflix’s “school for good and evil”, kit will play rafal
cast also includes: charlize theron, kerry washington, laurence fishburne, sofia wylie, michelle yeoh and earl cave pic.twitter.com/JlJTkjg5dU
— kit young daily (@kityoungupdates) May 12, 2021
Roth Films is behind the production of The School for Good and Evil and is most well known for their work on other live-action fairy tales such as Snow White and the Huntsman, Alice in Wonderland, and Maleficent. Jane Startz Productions is also credited with production, while NVIZ is behind the Special Effects and Siam Costumes International for props.
The majority of filming took place in Northern Ireland, where many hundreds of extras and crew members used on the film lived locally. By May 2021 filming had reportedly wrapped for some of the cast, and nearly all of the filming had concluded by early July 2021. One final scene was shot by the end of July, which officially wrapped up filming.
Since the film went into post-production, the director Paul Fieg has been editing for at least ten hours a day in order to get his vision for the special effects perfect for the movie.
What is the plot of The School for Good and Evil?
Every four years on the night of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, two children aged 12 are stolen from the village of Gavaldon and spirited away to the School for Good and Evil. Sophie, fair-haired and beautiful, has dreams of being taken to the school, and live out happily ever after as a princess with an adoring prince. However, Sophie’s best friend, Agatha, couldn’t be more opposite, being ugly with dark hair, bulging bug eyes, and her graveyard home.
Both are perfect candidates for the school, but upon the fateful night of the kidnapping, to the pair’s horror both of them are sent to the “wrong” school. Sophie arrives as a student for the school for Evil, becoming a “Never,” while Agatha becomes a student at the school for Good and becomes an “Ever.”
Who are the cast members for The School for Good and Evil?
The School for Good and Evil has an incredibly exciting cast featuring the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Charlize Theron, and Ben Kingsley.
Michelle Yeoh (left), Charlize Theron (center), and Ben Kingsley (right)
Michelle Yeoh was also recently cast in the prequel to The Witcher series, The Witcher: Blood Origin. Charlize Theron already has a large presence on Netflix thanks to her work in the superhero movie The Old Gaurd, and her work as an executive producer on Mindhunter. This will be the third Netflix movie for Academy Award-winning actor Ben Kingsley, who previously starred in Operation Finale and War Machine.
Portraying the lead roles of Sophie and Agatha are Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie, respectively.
Sophia Anne Caruso (left) and Sofia Wylie (right)
Below is the full confirmed cast list for The School for Good and Evil:
| Role | Cast Member | Where Have I Seen/Heard Them Before? |
|---|---|---|
| Lady Lesso | Charlize Theron | Monster | Mad Max: Fury Road | Atomic Blonde |
| Rafal | Kit Young | Shadow and Bone | Endeavour | Walter’s War |
| Professor Anemone | Michelle Yeoh | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | Tomorrow Never Dies | Crazy Rich Asians |
| The Schoolmaster | Laurence Fishburne | The Matrix | Mystic River | Contagion |
| Professor Dovey | Kerry Washington | Django Unchained | Scandal | Ray |
| Agatha | Sofia Wylie | High School Musical: The Musical – The Series | Spider-Man | Andi Mack |
| Hort | Earl Cave | Alex Rider | The End of the F***ing World | Born to Kill |
| Sophie | Sophia Anne Caruso | Jack of the Red Hearts | The Sound of Music Live! | Smash |
| Tedros | Jamie Flattes | So Awkward | Liar | The Forgotten Battle |
| Professor Manley | Mark Heap | Stardust | Friday Night Dinner | Green Wing |
| Chinen | Chinenye Ezeudu | The Stranger | Sex Education |
| Hester | Freya Parks | Jane Eyre | Les Miserables | Creation |
| Vanessa | Stephanie Siadatan | Silent Witness | The Seventeenth Kid | Emmerdale |
| Cayla | Olivia Booth-Ford | Do Not Disturb | Gloria |
| Millicent | Rosie Graham | Outlander | Guarding | Sanditon |
| Kiko | Emma Lau | Venom: Let There Be Carnage | Artemis Fowl | Trial and Error |
| Reena | Briony Scarlett | Wonder Woman 1984 | Harlots | Soulmates |
| Nicholas | Misha Butler | Kiss Me First | Two’s Company | Casualty |
| Beatrix | Holly Sturton | Smother |
| Chaddick | Ali Khan | Kal Ho Naa Ho | Dil Chahta Hai | Omkara |
| Anadil | Demi Isaac Oviawe | The Young Offenders | To All My Darlings |
| TBA | Ben Kingsley | Gandhi | Schindler’s List | Shutter Island |
| TBA | Rob Delaney | Catastrophe | Deadpool 2 | Bombshell |
| TBA | Rachel Bloom | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | Robot Chicken | The Angry Birds Movie 2 |
| TBA | Patti LuPone | Witness | Heist | State and Main |
Can we expect to see more movies adapted from the books?
Given how popular the books are, we’d expect to see the movie perform extremely well when it arrives in 2022. Any sequels rely heavily on how well the movie performs. If successful, Netflix can adapt a further 5 novels into movies, giving them a huge boost to their lineup of Original content.
At the time of writing there are six books set in the world of The School for Good and Evil:
The School Years
1. The School for Good and Evil
2. A World Without Princes
3. The Last Ever After
The Camelot Years
4. Quests for Glory
5. A Crystal of Time
6. One True King
When is The School for Good and Evil Netflix release date?
Fans wishing to see the movie arrive in 2021 will be sorely disappointed as The School for Good and Evil is destined to arrive on Netflix sometime in 2022.
It’s unclear when the movie is arriving in 2022, but taking into consideration filming began in April 2021, we’d expect to see it arrive on Netflix in the Spring or Summer.
Are you looking forward to the Netflix release of The School for Good and Evil? Let us know in the comments below!