Blackpink’s Jennie joins Sam Levinson and The Weeknd’s HBO series The Idol

The "sleaziest love story in Hollywood" officially has a real life idol in the cast

Aux News Sam Levinson
Blackpink’s Jennie joins Sam Levinson and The Weeknd’s HBO series The Idol
Jennie Kim Photo: Scott Dudelson

Who better to join the cast of Sam Levinson and The Weeknd’s The Idol than a literal idol? Jennie Kim, a member of the girl group Blackpink, has signed on to join the cast of the series billed as “the sleaziest love story in Hollywood.”

HBO confirmed Jennie’s casting via Twitter, sharing a moodily-lit still of the singer in character. “Jennie Kim has been cast in #THEIDOL,” the caption reads.

Created by Levinson, The Weeknd (credited by his real name Abel Tesfaye), and Reza Fahim, The Idol explores the intoxicating relationship between a young pop star, Jocelyn (Lily Rose-Depp) and an enigmatic cult leader and businessman (Tesfaye). Troye Sivan, Suzanna Son, and Steve Zissis will join the series as regulars, with Melanie Liburd, Tunde Adebimpe, Elizabeth Berkley Lauren, Nico Hiraga and Anne Heche taking on recurring roles.

If anything can be gleaned from the series’ first trailer, which dropped on Monday, The Idol is all about visual over-saturation and glitter-drenched depravity. Levinson’s voyeuristic cinematography choices feel even more apt here than in Euphoria, given that the series presumably explores Jocelyn’s exploitation as a performer, and then her exploitation within the cult. From the brief images we see of her character in the trailer, Kim also appears to play a lithe young thing under the cultish spell Tesfaye’s cult.

Although fans of Euphoria or The Weeknd’s music videos will recognize the blinding lights and bass-heavy soundtrack of the project, the trailer leaves quite a lot to the imagination. Though the project advertises itself as coming “from the sick and twisted minds” of it’s creators, the most sick and twisted things we see onscreen are semi-nudity, fake cocaine, and the gaudiest of Beverly Hills mansions. How absolutely depraved!

Although The Idol still has yet to receive an official premiere date, the trailer it’s “coming soon.”

3 Comments

  • kinjacaffeinespider-av says:

    That microphone reminds me of something…

  • ohnoray-av says:

    sleaziest love story in Hollywoodthe irony in the Weeknd and Levinson hiding behind their aesthetic to pretend they aren’t as sleazy as the rest.

  • docprof-av says:

    Why in the hell did you call her Elizabeth Berkely Lauren? I had to go look if that was another actress I hadn’t heard of, instead of you just for some really weird reason using Elizabeth Berkley’s legal married name instead of the she’s been using her entire career.

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