Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time adaptation continues to come together piece by piece in the news. The latest tidbit that’s been shared — this time, by The Hollywood Reporter — is that Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon are in negotiations to join the one previously announced high-profile cast-member (Oprah Winfrey, that is) in Frozen writer Jennifer Lee’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved fantasy novel.
Oprah was already announced to be playing one of the book’s three Mrs. W’s (Mrs. Which, specifically) — angelic characters who in the novel can transcend space-time as well bodily form. And it’s now been shared that Witherspoon will likely take on the role of Mrs. Whatsit, a Mrs. who in L’Engle’s version of things happens to, at 2 billion years old, be the youngest of the bunch, despite appearing in the form of an old woman — though she’s also sometimes a centaur and a star. She’s the Mrs. who first appears to initiate the protagonists’ (thirteen year old Meg Murray, her brother Charles, and their schoolmate Calvin O’Keefe) journey across the universe to find the Murrays’ missing father.
Kaling, meanwhile — if these negotiations go according to plan — will take on the role of Mrs. Who, a studied Mrs. who speaks in a bounty of languages and is able to quote a wealth of literary figures.
Oprah’s character is the intellectual leader of the three, though she’s also the one who least often takes a human form. She’s known in the book, most often, to appear simply as a light.