Dafne Keen was an instant escape as Laura Kinney the Mini Mutant in the 2017 film, Logan. While the film was a strong farewell to Hugh Jackman’s interpretation of Wolverine signaling the end of the mutant, Keen delighted many fans with his magical portrayal as Logan’s heir.
After this phenomenal performance, she was ready to seize any great opportunity that came her way. And did they come? Yes, a lot of them. And she hooked everyone including Ana whom she is filming. She’s set to star in a timely franchise in an adaptation of Her Dark Materials . Join me on this incredible journey of discovery as we explore the history of this prodigy.
Who is Dafne Keen? Age
Dafne Keen Fernández, the prodigy was born in the year 2005 to a British father, Will Keen and a Spanish mother, María Fernández Ache. She is fairly fluent in both languages, which allowed her to understand the role of pre-teen Latina mutant in addition to her martial arts and acrobatic skills. She was just 11 at the time and was nearly mute on set, but when she spoke it was a torrent of flames in brief bouts of Spanish.
Her parents are both in showbiz and so she quickly acclimated to the screens from an early age. Before she was 10 years old, Dafne had already made her debut on the big screen. She appeared alongside her father as Ana “Ani” Cruz Oliver in the television series The Refugees in 2014 through the eight-episode single season.
Then, in 2017, she made her film debut with a historic role as the mutant child of gluttonous mutant X-23, aka Laura Kinney, in the Marvel superhero film, Logan. The 2017 film is the tenth installment in the X-Men film franchise that has been hailed by critics as the best superhero movie of all time. The blockbuster was also a commercial success with $600 million in box office receipts worldwide.
While it was a fitting end to the iconic Wolverine, Jackman’s character, fierce newcomer Dafne comes across as a star and left us with plenty to explore as a potential new Wolverine. Additionally, Patrick Stewart, who reprized his lead role, Professor Charles Xavier, and director James Mangold praised the mutant kid with Mangold, calling her a standout kid and 11-year-old method actor.
Keen, apart from the acclaim, has also garnered a number of nominations including Critics’ Choice Movie Awards for Best Young Performer, Chicago Film Critics Association for Most Promising Actor, and Houston Film Critics Society for 2018 for Best Supporting Actress. Additionally, she won the Empire Awards for Best Newcomer and Best Duo from the MTV Movie & TV Awards with Hugh Jackman.
Having inherited the intensity and force of Wolverine’s explosiveness, not to mention sick fighting skills, she’s ready to take center stage in her own supernatural franchise. She’s gearing up for an eight-part adaptation of Oscar-winning director Philip Pullman’s trilogy of Tom Hooper’s His Dark Materials. She would portray the heroine Lyra, an orphan who slips into a parallel universe and makes supernatural friends. The series is also set to co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lyra’s friends, balloonist Lee Scoresby.
Dafne Keen’s parents
The star comes from an acting family and has proven herself to be her father’s daughter. Her father is a British actor known as Thomas Cranmer in the British TV series Wolf Hall and Michael Adeane on Netflix The Crown while her mother is a Spanish actress, theater director and writer. She is credited for her role in the British gangster film Antisocial (2015) which co-starred the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.
His other relatives also achieved fame in their own right and include his paternal great-grandfather, Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe.
Having achieved celebrity status in the entertainment sphere, no matter what it would take for their daughter to achieve the same goal, is a sacrifice worth making. While auditioning for her role as Laura, the Keens helped her research Shane and Mangold’s 2005 biopic of Johnny Cash Walking the Line which both influenced the R-rated violent film.
The actress, who stands at 4’11, also enjoys ballet, singing, acrobatics, in addition to acting and she is also an award-winning gymnast.