It’s final.
“Darna,” a fictional local action heroine created for magazine by Mars Ravelo will soar the airwaves anytime as soon as shoots start to roll in November.
Jane de Leon a San Pedro City native, although she has moved to places closer to her showbiz commitments and to urban metropolis, is still the ABS-CBN’s “Darna” after she passed the audition during pre-pandemic.
Angel Locsin was the first choice to reprise her own former screen protagonist role in the past but she had an injury in her spine from a stunt while doing ABS-CBN’s “The General’s Daughter” so she backed out of the “Darna” project.
It was offered to Liza Soberano instead but on a training stint while doing “Bagani,” Liza’s finger had figured in an accident so she courteously begged off from the role.
Erik Matti was supposed to direct Angel but the whole project was shelved while Jerrold Tarog was tapped to meg Liza after she left the assignment.
After all is said and done, award-winning director Chito Roño has replaced Jerrold.
According to an interview, Jane said she had butterflies in her stomach when she learned that Chito would be her director.
It’s known all over show business that Roño is no mean director. But de Leon was assured that Chito would be very considerate of stars like Jane who is being groomed for solo stardom.
Others in the cast of the fantasy-drama TV series are Iza Calzado who plays the mom of Darna named Leonor Custodio from the planet Marte and Ding, Zaijian Jaranilla, Kiko Estrada, Simon Ibarra, Levy Ignacio, Richard Quan, among others.