Why Iris From Companion Looks So Familiar

Audiences will soon be wired into the brand-new horror film "Companion" by director Drew Hancock. The film follows a young couple whose weekend turns south when they get caught up in a murder. Josh (Jack Quaid, star of "The Boys") thinks things are on lockdown until his girlfriend Iris begins spiraling out of control. The chaos forces the rest of the group to choose the best course of action in how to deal with Iris involving as little bloodshed as possible, but they fail miserably.

To go into further detail might spoil what the trailers for this clever little film have already revealed. Thankfully, it doesn't stop the movie from being a grand old time and what /Film's Chris Evangelista deemed "the first great film of 2025." Most of the credit goes to its lead, Sophie Thatcher, who perfectly sells "Companion's" biggest trick, which would be a tough task for other actors. Thankfully, Thatcher has enough work under her belt in very dark and horrifying territory in both film and television to do so, which is probably why she looks so familiar to audiences scratching their heads and trying to figure out where they've seen her before.

She may only make two brief appearances in the show, but Sophie Thatcher nailed being the traumatized victim of demonic possession, Regan MacNeil, in "The Exorcist" television series released in 2016. Adding another chapter to "The Exorcist," the show saw a brand new family experience some devilish activity when an evil entity infects their home, forcing the mother, Angela Rance (Geena Davis), to seek assistance from another pair of brave priests who aren't afraid of getting covered in pea soup. The awesome game-changer here is that it's eventually revealed Angela Rance is Regan MacNeill, who has since changed her name following her horrific ordeal.

Thatcher plays Regan in flashbacks, with one great moment seeing Regan appearing on a talk show with her mother, Chris MacNeil, promoting a book about her possession experience. The young star-in-the-making does an excellent job selling just how mortified Regan still is following her dance with the demon Pazuzu. Brief as it is, it's an interesting early appearance in a genre that Thatcher would encounter regularly in the years that followed. After its second season, "The Exorcist" was canned by Fox in 2017, regardless of its commendable efforts to improve television horror for the better. Even so, it's still a fun watch and a fitting stepping stone for Thatcher.

"Yellowjackets" debuted in 2021 with a plane full of young talent, Sophie Thatcher chief (or Antler Queen) among them. Spanning two timelines, the show centers around the aftermath of a plane crash weathered by a high school soccer team in 1996, with Thatcher's Natalie Scatorccio among the group of survivors. In the present day though, those who made it out alive have carried dark secrets with them, including Natalie who is played as an adult by Juliette Lewis.

Molding her character so that the shift between herself and her older counterpart is seamless, Thatcher has given a standout performance thus far. A troubled soul even before take-off, Natalie has one of the best characters, particularly in the second season, which ended on an even more exciting but bittersweet note. Thankfully, she's back for once again as "Yellowjackets" returns for season 3. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about her trip back to the woods following the jaw-dropping finale of season 2, Thatcher had some solid predictions for what lies ahead.

"I think it's just going to start more conflict," she theorized. "Not that things were going well, but they had a leader that people agreed on, and now everything is thrown out of sorts. People don't even like Natalie that much. They trust her, but she's not giving them what Lottie was giving them." 

See what Natalie can give when the new season returns on February 14.

After building up well-deserved interest thanks to her work with the rest of the "Yellowjackets," audiences were even more excited to see Sophie Thatcher appear in a corner of the galaxy far, far away in "The Book of Boba Fett." On our trip back to Tattooine with the infamous bounty hunter, he bumped into a street gang known as the Mods, which included Thatcher's Drash. When it was confirmed that she was set to appear in the spin-off series, fans had numerous theories about what part Thatcher would play in Fett's story. Unfortunately, the disappointing truth was that, like so many other elements in the show, she was grossly underused.

As much we'd be down to let Drash bully us and steal our water supply, she got nowhere enough screen time in what still stands as one of the middling "Star Wars" shows that sparked from "The Mandalorian." Since the show aired in 2021, Drash and the rest of the Mods haven't turned up anywhere else in the "Star Wars" universe, but Thatcher teased to The Hollywood Reporter that it wouldn't be the last we'd see of her. As is the standard practice for anyone in a "Star Wars" project, Thatcher said, "You can assume my character might be in more stuff." Ensuring not to give anything away, the Yellowjackets and speed biker team member added, "Yeah, I don't disappear. (Laughs.) I don't even know if I'm allowed to say that."

We should be at a point where Hollywood is almost running out of Stephen King stories to adapt, but thankfully, 2023 squeezed out one more in the form of Rob Savage's take on the short story "The Boogeyman." Sophie Thatcher starred as Sadie, a daughter grieving the loss of her mother who begins to start hearing bumps in the night. Ben Pearson called it "an eerie and effective adaptation of King's work," with a lot of thanks going to Thatcher as the hero determined to bring whatever is hunting her and her younger sister out of the dark and into the light. However, handling the hero role of a character facing off against something that's hiding in the shadows can often be a hard sell, but it is one that the star was determined to deliver in her own way.

Speaking to /Film back in 2023, Thatcher gave a little bit of insight into her method of playing the final girl that has undoubtedly carried over into "Companion" and how any hero should be handled when facing extraordinary circumstances. "Because in moments like that, when you're delivering such epic lines, the fear is always, for me specifically, I don't want to be corny. So it's just about keeping it as grounded as possible. So I think if I were to watch that now, it'd be different, but I was trying not to watch too many horror movies while I was filming it."

Sophie Thatcher was forced to face the darker side of Hugh Grant, which audiences may not have known existed when she appeared in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' movie "Heretic." Released in 2024, she joined Chloe East as two young missionaries who knocked on the wrong door and found Grant's Mr. Reed on the other side. From here, a question of faith comes into play, leading to yet another exceptional turn from Thatcher.

The pressure was already on, given that the young star was one of only three main cast members in the film, amplified by the inclusion of Grant. In an interview with The Independent, she expressed the struggle to share the screen with a legend she'd been watching most of her life. "He always intimidated me, so I was a little nervous when I heard it was going to be him in the film. I grew up very much idolizing him and thinking he was just some British god."

Thankfully, it didn't take long for her to acclimate to Grant. "I love that he's a very honest person — and you get that right away when you meet him. There's no sugar-coating. I feel like that's rare to find in people, and I really appreciate that." It's one of Thatcher's most enjoyable bits of work to date. She might be caught on the receiving end of a scene-stealing Grant but without the collective fear built from herself and East, there'd be no scenes to steal anyway.

You can check out Sophie Thatcher in "Companion," now in theaters everywhere.