Daisy Edgar-Jones’ upcoming summer blockbuster Twisters could threaten the actress’ impressive Rotten Tomatoes streak dating back to her film debut in 2018. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Twisters is a standalone sequel to the 1996 weather disaster movie Twister starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, about a group of amateur storm chasers in Oklahoma. Twisters follows a similar premise but ups the ante with more extreme conditions. Edgar-Jones will play a scientist named Kate Cooper alongside Glen Powell as “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens.
Gearing up to be a true summer blockbuster, Twisters‘ release date is confirmed to be July 19, 2024. Twisters will be Edgar-Jones’ first movie since Where the Crawdads Sing in 2022 and first acting role in general since returning as Emily Gresham for one episode of War of the Worlds season 3 that same year. Depending on how well Twisters does with critics and audiences, Edgar-Jones’ career-long Rotten Tomatoes streak may be at risk.
In 2022, Edgar-Jones played the lead character, Kya Clark, in the film adaptation of Delia Owens’ 2018 coming-of-age murder mystery novel, Where the Crawdads Sing. Although the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is that “Daisy Edgar-Jones gives it her all” as Kya, critics have found that “Where the Crawdads Sing is ultimately unable to distill its source material into a tonally coherent drama.” Where the Crawdads Sing only has a 35% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it Edgar-Jones’ only “Rotten” title.
In contrast to its low score on the Tomatometer, Where the Crawdads Sing has an unbelievably high audience score of 96%. This is the highest audience score in Edgar-Jones’ whole catalog on Rotten Tomatoes, including TV shows. Her only other project with an audience score in the 90th percentile is Normal People, the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel, which has a 92% rating. While Where the Crawdads Sing broke Edgar-Jones’ “Fresh” streak on the Tomatometer since her 2018 film debut in Pond Life, it not only extended her unstoppable hot streak with audiences but also raised the stakes.
Depending on how it’s received by the general public, Twisters will either break or extend Edgar-Jones’ “Fresh” streak with audiences. None of Edgar-Jones’ titles have a “Rotten” audience score, so Twisters needs to score 60% or above with audiences in order to maintain this streak. If Twisters somehow manages to beat Where the Crawdads Sing‘s 96% audience score, it would also continue the upward trajectory of her movies’ audience scores.
The opposite is true when it comes to Edgar-Jones’ critics scores. Where the Crawdads Sing already broke her “Fresh” streak on the Tomatometer, so if Twisters is deemed “Rotten” by critics, it would actually start a new “Rotten” streak for Edgar-Jones as opposed to breaking or continuing one. If it’s “Fresh,” though, Twisters will simply get her back on the right track.
Several factors indicate that Twisters has the potential to be a hit with audiences and critics, including the solid cast behind it. In addition to Edgar-Jones and Powell, the Twisters cast includes Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Kiernan Shipka, and more. Lee Isaac Chung is also a two-time Oscar nominee for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Minari.
The original Twister movie’s reception may also provide a solid basis to predict how Twisters might perform. On Rotten Tomatoes, Twister is just barely “Fresh” on the Tomatometer with a 63% critics score, but has a “Rotten” audience score of 58%. Based on how the mere 5% difference in Twister‘s specific scores distinguishes the critics’ response as “Fresh” while the audience’s is “Rotten,” Twisters could really go either way as far as breaking or extending Edgar-Jones’ streak.
Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Rotten Tomatoes, Rotten Tomatoes