Lauren James chooses who to cast to play the characters in The Last Beginning

I am a huge fan of casting my characters – I’ve done it for The Next Together several times over the last six years, starting when the story was just a vague concept in my mind, to recasts when it was a published novel.

Here’s my (current!) choices for my latest novel, The Last Beginning. These are subject to change, if there’s someone cool who catches my eye!

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Clove Sutcliffe is Ellen Page.

My quiet, sad little darling. For a lot of the book she doesn’t have the best time of it. She’s got the perfect features to match her parents’, and Ellen Page is so expressive. Plus: gay. Very gay.

Elenore Walker, Clove’s love interest, is Kate McKinnon.

Firstly, it should be noted that Ella is officially the naughtiest name. That was not an accident. Ella is v v naughty, just like Kate McKinnon. The wild blonde hair, the nonsense facial expressions and the extreme gay-ness are all very Ella.

Dr Tom Sutcliffe (née Galloway), Clove’s dad, is Karl Urban.

Unf. Tom melted a lot of hearts in TNT, and I hope he’ll do the same in TLB. He’s clever and witty and chill, and he’s got the whole cocky thing going for him. Plus: a motorbike. Nuff said.

Caveat: young Tom, as seen in The Next Together, is still and always will be Dylan O’Brien. He just is.

Dr Jennifer Sutcliffe, Clove’s mum, is Jessica Hynes. 

Jen is very smiley and mothering, with a good sense of humour.She’s also a killer scientist at the top of her field, and bisexual. Jen is my fave, tbh.

Clove’s best friend Meg is Amanda Seyfried. She’s blonde and pretty but also kind of dorky. She’s a huge fangirl and gets nervous when she doesn’t know how to deal with things.

Katherine Finchley is obviously still Rose Leslie, as so:

Matthew Galloway is, as always, Ben Whishaw.

And here’s the whole gang, all together. Working as a team, like all families should.

Sources: (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

 

The Last Beginning is published by Walker Books in the UK and Australia. It will be released in the US in Jan 2018 by Sky Pony Press.

Amazon UK | Book Depository | Waterstones | Foyles  | Hive 

You can add the book on Goodreads or subscribe to my mailing list for updates, or read the prologue on Wattpad.

More extras:

• Why the sequel to The Next Together has an LGBT protagonist 
• Novel Aesthetics
• Playlist
• Recap of The Next Together
• The books in emoji format
• Titanic crossover
• Disney crossover
• 10 fictional characters who inspired Clove & Ella
• Editing a scene from start to finish
• Cover reveal
• Tumblr posts about The Last Beginning

About Lauren James

Lauren James is the twice Carnegie-nominated British author of many Young Adult novels, including Green Rising, The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. She is a RLF Royal Fellow, freelance editor and screenwriter. Lauren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, and on the board of the Authors & Illustrators Sustainability Working Group through the Society of Authors. Her books have sold over a hundred thousand copies worldwide and been translated into six languages. The Quiet at the End of the World was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and STEAM Children’s Book Award. Her other novels include The Next Together series, the dyslexia-friendly novella series The Watchmaker and the Duke and serialised online novel An Unauthorised Fan Treatise. She was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. Lauren is a passionate advocate of STEM further education, and many of her books feature female scientists in prominent roles. She sold the rights to her first novel when she was 21, whilst she was still at university. Her writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly. Lauren lives in the West Midlands and is an Arts Council grant recipient. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Buzzfeed, Den of Geek, The Toast, and the Children’s Writers and Artist’s Yearbook 2022. She has taught creative writing for Coventry University, WriteMentor, and Writing West Midlands.

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