‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Isn’t Just a Chess Drama. It’s an Anya Taylor-Joy Showcase.

The last movie I saw in theaters was Emma., Autumn de Wilde’s pointedly punctuated adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel. de Wilde’s Emma. revels in Regency period detail, all gorgeous frippery and drawing rooms arranged just so. But all those symmetrical compositions require a center, both literal and metaphorical, and Emma.’s is the young performer who embodies the title character: the 24-year-old actress Anya Taylor-Joy.

WATCH GUIDE: The Queen’s Gambit

Taylor-Joy is one of a handful of exceptions to the rule that They Just Don’t Make ’Em Like That Anymore—“’Em” meaning “movie stars” and “Like That” meaning “performers forging successful careers through small, interesting projects,” not through superhero movies or TikTok dance challenges. (Notably, Taylor-Joy did appear in New Mutants, the cursed production now enduring a tepid quarantine release.) Taylor-Joy’s first film role, after getting cut out of a bit part in 2014’s Vampire Academy, was the lead in The Witch,Robert Eggers’s desaturated Sundance hit about the horrors of the patriarchy in Puritan New England. As Thomasin, the eldest daughter of a family exiled to the haunted wilderness, Taylor-Joy offered a solid foundation for an often-shaky metaphor: The titular witch represents female liberation, but also eats babies; Taylor-Joy is magnetic enough to ward off any follow-up questions until well after the credits roll.

In the half-decade since, Taylor-Joy has delved into more straightforward horror (M. Night Shyamalan’s Split and Glass), boosted another buzzy debut (Cory Finley’s Thoroughbreds), and banked a film with Edgar Wright (the upcoming Last Night in Soho). Last month, she was officially announced as George Miller’s pick for a younger version of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa in an upcoming Mad Max spinoff, the ultimate cosign for a star on the rise. Now she’s reached another milestone, characteristically ahead of schedule: becoming the latest A-lister to anchor a glossy TV miniseries.

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