Battle Royale is an American teen dark comedy-drama television series developed by Bryan Fuller, Karl Schaefer and Aron Eli Coleite. It is based on the film directed by Kinji Fukasaku from a screenplay by Kenta Fukasaku, and the 1999 novel of the same name by Koushun Takami. It follows a group of junior high school students forced to fight to the death by a totalitarian American government.
Synopsis[]
42 9th graders are sent to a deserted island. They are given a map, food, and various weapons. An explosive collar is fitted around their neck. If they break a rule, the collar explodes. Their mission: kill each other and be the last one standing. The last survivor is allowed to leave the island. If there is more than one survivor, the collars explode and kill them all.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Xolo Maridueña as Shawn Nieves - Shawn is an orphan whose parents were killed for taking part in anti-government activities.
Emily Alyn Lind as Nora Anderson - Nora is a quiet, reserved girl who teams up with Shawn from the beginning and becomes a sort of love interest.
Dallas Liu as Simon Kim - Simon is a transfer student from San Diego that is one year older than the rest of the class and covered in scars. He is a loner and, unbeknownst to his classmates, won the Program the previous year. He teams up with Shawn and Nora with a plan to escape the island together.
Kathryn Newton as Taylor Churchill - Taylor was an extremely gifted sprinter on the girls' track team; her record time on the 200 Meter Sprint was second best in the school's history. She managed to get away with her unusual hairstyles and excessive jewelry at school because of her good grades and profile as a top athlete. She had a younger sister, Ally, and a pet dog, Hanako. She resented having to dress unattractively for school and was quite vain. When she was angered, she would break into a grin.
Angourie Rice as Mia Scott - Mia is the beautiful leader of a female gang.
Aidan Gallagher as Carter Kline - Carter is the leader of delinquents, who is also the smartest and one of the most athletic students in the class.
Gavin Casalegno as Harry Gibson - Harry is the best friend of Shawn.
Chosen Jacobs as Issac Miller - Issac is the first string shooting guard and one of the most athletic people in the class.
Jacob Batalon as Jackson Allen - Jackson is the biggest kid in the class, but was also very timid. Because of his nature, he was often the target of pranks and insults. He enjoyed playing video games. He wasn't good in sports as he couldn't catch a fly ball nor could he run a full lap around the track, he basically was bumbling through gym class.
Benjamin Wadsworth as Kevin Hathaway - Kevin was known to love comic books. Issac viewed him as a coward and didn't trust him because when they both went to the center of town together Kevin hid as Issac was being mugged. Kevin is described as being nice enough but he wasn't a loyal friend as he was a coward.
Mark McKenna as Ty Lambert - Ty was described as one of the jocks in the class. He was noted as having a cheerful and kind personality.
Justin Prentice as Freddie Clark - Freddie is an unpleasant boy, said to resemble a frog. He knows he is ugly, and as a result is resentful towards the boys in his class who are good-looking. He also hates the boys who are tall, as he is quite short (162 centimeters). He has a disdain for women, and views them as merely tools for producing children, or to show off as "trophy wives". He is resentful towards all people that he considers to be "vulgar".
Lucas Hedges as Eric Andrews - Eric's nickname is "Yosh". Although he has bulging friendly eyes, the nickname seemed appropriate for someone who could be, oddly enough, mature and wise. He’s always friendly to everyone no matter what happened, it was impossible to imagine him getting angry. He is extremely kind, and even when he was insulted or picked on he usually laughed it off. But when someone he truly loved was hurt, his response was extreme.
Alex Lawther as Alex Hudson - Alex is described as having thick eyelashes and a "Latin" look. He began dating his classmate Jennifer after they bumped into each other in town one day, and decided to see a movie. He claimed to have started dating her because he heard she was promiscuous, but this could have been said because of the pressure he endured in the program. Regardless, he soon grew to care for her, giving her his fortune at the New Year festival because it was more positive than hers. He first slept with Jennifer on the 18th of January. Alex always kissed Jennifer by first kissing her lips, then her eyelids, and finally the tip of her nose.
Gabriel Basso as Henry Best - Henry was known as a quiet, but arrogant student who tagged along with the Kline Family. Nathan described his as "a nobody" who tagged along with the Kline Family.
Tye Sheridan as Ryan Stewart - Ryan was very arrogant but he had been extremely grateful to Carter ever since he pulled some strings to stop his younger brother from being arrested by the cops. Ryan tried to pick a fight with Simon only to go crying back to Carter, who merely did nothing. He used to be bullied by Joe.
Fionn Whitehead as Finn McKenna - Finn was a class clown along with Hailee and went to grade school with Issac. He could never understand why someone so popular like Issac would be friends with him.
Noah Centineo as Aiden Benjamin - Aiden was a big anime fan, and many of his classmates thought of him as an otaku. He found it very easy to sympathize with people; for example, he did not believe that Mia was an evil person, but that she must have some deep-seated reason for acting the way she does.
Finn Wolfhard as Nathan Decker - Nathan was the only openly gay student in Class B and his father ran a gay bar. Nathan was a heavy smoker, preferring Virginia Slims Menthol cigarettes, and he also drank alcohol. He was stealthy due to him stalking his various crushes and he was very caring of his appearance. He didn't trust anyone because of his adult experiences in the bar.
Wolfgang Novogratz as K.J. Newman - K.J. was a jock who was a forward on the soccer team; he was very fast and fit. He was arrogant and a show-off. He didn't put much effort into his work but he got above average grades. He always tried to impress others and in his first year he made a up rumor that he was going out with Taylor, though she resented him because of this. K.J. always made excuses for his actions, which annoyed Taylor. He viewed women as belongings and below men.
Jack Champion as Joe Nelson - Joe had been a bully since elementary school, but he was never needlessly cruel. He grew up in a generic family so he wasn't particularly bright or displayed any gifts so fighting was the best way to prove himself.
Ross Lynch as Dylan Hunter - Dylan was a tall, well-built boy who played on the baseball team. He is described as having average looks, with short, spiked hair, and slight acne on his cheeks. Dylan was a jock who had a tough façade but inside was just as scared as the others in the program. He was friends with Shawn when they both played Little League Baseball, but he stopped playing baseball and his mother wouldn't let them hang out as Shawn started playing the electric guitar (an un-patriotic activity). His mother was very uptight.
Shameik Moore as DeAndre Harris - DeAndre was the son of a man who was the director of environmental affairs in the prefectural government. DeAndre, possibly in order to live up to his father, would study so hard that he barely had time for friends or sleep. He was also the male class representative. DeAndre had the second best grades in his class and he was quite selfish and thought himself more important than the rest of his class because of who his father is.
Asa Butterfield as Kai Michaels - Kai is a kind boy who was going out with Vanessa. They were considered the most intimate couple in the class. Kai and Vanessa were very insular and the two had slept together a couple of months before the program. They often went on dates in the city, for meals or to the cinema.
Olivia Holt as Michelle Bennett - Michelle is a girl with an eccentric imagination, spent a great deal of her time living in a fantasy world. She pretended to be an anime space warrior named Prexia Dikianne Mizuho, appointed by the God of Light, Ahura Mazda.
Kiernan Shipka as Yasmine Underwood - Yasmine is the female class representative and a setter of the volleyball team. She is an intelligent, caring girl, who is bold enough to say what she is thinking. She is held in high regard by most of her classmates, as both Issac and the proud Taylor consider her to be trustworthy.
Cailee Spaeny as Megan Sanders - Megan comes from a normal home and believes her parents to be overprotective, as they gave her a cellphone to take with her on the trip in case of an emergency. As shown in the program, she trusts people quite easily as long as they don't present themselves as a threat.
Haley Lu Richardson as Vanessa Howard - Vanessa and her boyfriend Kai are very insular and the most trivial things entertain them. She has a pure soul and a very gentle manner about her, despite the pain she felt over her father's death. When she was little, her father was gunned down without a warrant by the government after being suspected of antigovernmental activities. One of Vanessa's favorite television shows was called "Tonight, at the Same Place." A character in the show, Mason, decided to break up with her true love, an act that Vanessa disagreed heavily with.
Joey King as Millie Cruise - Millie is a prep but not stuck up at all. She came from one of the five richest families in town as her father is a town officer. She was once selected to run in a relay race at school, but she dropped the baton and burst into tears. Millie was kind and caring despite her wealthy background.
Giorgia Whigham as Lisa Hilton - Lisa is a member of the Halo Church, which was where she met her best friend, Jessica. Although they both attended the church, neither was very devoted to the religion - they saw it more as a social meeting. They shared everything, and one time brought a pair of earrings they both liked, keeping one earring each. Lisa was very domesticated, and loved to make cakes for Jessica. She was very concerned about other people's opinions of her.
Sophie Turner as Jessica Bedford - Jessica met her future best friend Lisa Hilton at nursery school, though they were in separate classes and lived in different neighborhoods. In elementary school she was best friends with another girl who had a bad reputation. Jessica suspected her of stealing her limited edition tri-tip pen, which she adored, so she complained to the teacher, even though her friend said she hadn't taken it. The teacher was biased too and believed that she had taken it and she got punished, though it turned out Jessica left the pen at home. She couldn't trust her and their friendship failed.
Mary Mouser as Katherine Kennedy - Katherine is a member of the tea ceremony group at her school, but was described as being playful and energetic rather than elegant, which is what would be expected of someone performing in a tea ceremony. She had a huge crush on one of the masters of the tea ceremony, who was also the 19-year-old grandson of the school's headmaster, although she only had two encounters with him. The first was when he took charge at a tea ceremony being held for a government official, when the original master took sick. Afterwards, Katherine asked if he was okay, and he seemed impressed by her maturity. The second was when he ran into her in the temple gardens, and had a chat with her about the tea ceremony. Katherine had an older sister. Katherine was very kind and compassionate but she was a bit of a dreamer.
Elle Fanning as Helena Smith - Helena's alcoholic father used to abuse her by burning cigarettes into her skin. He would then beat her mother with a golf club if she tried to intervene. Helena's brother was at one time beaten with an ashtray and almost lost his sight because of the incident. She wasn't old enough to understand why and didn't even want to remember it. When she was in first grade, her father was stabbed and killed by local Yakuza over a gambling dispute. The family then had a fairly peaceful life since he died but she still has nightmares about him, and had since become terrified of any violent or gory situation. She is friends with Yasmine's group. Helena's family wasn't rich.
Chloë Grace Moretz as Penelope Barker - Penelope is a member of the gang headed by Mia. Penelope had been involved with both recreational drugs and prostitution, and she also shoplifted and bullied other classmates (including Megan and Erica). As a result of these things, she did not get on well with her parents, who treated her like a lost cause. Although considered a "bad girl", Penelope was quite opposed to the idea of having to kill people unless they tried to kill her first. Even though she committed various crimes, she prided herself on at least being genuine, as opposed to Morgan, who she knew participated in "phone-dating" yet maintained a prim and proper persona at school. Penelope also never saw most of her actions as harmful, and it does not seem that she was pressured into committing crimes by Mia, like Jennifer was. Penelope first entered Megan's class in their second year of junior high school. When Megan and Penelope were in the same hall, Penelope typically tripped Megan and/or slashed Megan's skirt with a razor. Eventually Penelope lost interest in Megan. She did not believe anyone would be nice to her without having an ulterior motive. This, with the fact that she does not trust Mia, means that Jennifer was her only real friend. Because of her involvement in crime she had a very mature view of the world, she felt that you couldn't trust anyone.
Rachel Sennott as Hannah Walker - Hannah played as an attacker on the volleyball team and played well with her best friend, Yasmine Underwood, on the team. Hannah was one of the girls who was in the "Neutrals". Hannah was kind and supportive and did what she needed to defend herself. She was also a good cook as she and Nancy provided food for all of the lighthouse girls.
Sydney Sweeney as Morgan Thompson - Morgan was rumored to have partaken in "telephone dating", which caused some to regard her as a slut. Penelope knew that Morgan appeared prim and proper but participated in the dating.
Taylor Hickson as Hailee Rockwell - Hailee was known around her school for being very cheerful even in dire circumstances. She was a class-clown and enjoyed watching horror movies. Hailee also played tennis. Hailee was enthusiastic and helped to raise people's moods with her personality.
Natalia Dyer as Sarah Green - Sarah was known for being a model student due to her intelligence, although she was also known for being very frigid. It was also said that she had a slightly husky voice. Sarah had insomnia and worried about issues a lot.
Virginia Gardner as Kendall Foster - Kendall was the nurse's aide. It was said that she was quiet but very caring.
Lili Reinhart as Nancy Hartman - Nancy was known for being very quiet and withdrawn. She was a nice girl and a good cook. She was part of the "Neutrals" with several other girls. Nancy had a secret crush on Issac despite his reputation as a player, which suggests that she was trusting.
Katherine McNamara as Erica Lee Curtis - Erica is an insecure girl who was into pop idols like Hunter Hayes. She wore a necklace with a picture of Hunter in it round her neck. Erica was bullied by Mia's gang and she had acne which she felt insecure of. She liked long warm baths and tried to get rid of her acne with cream. She was a worried girl who thought that people would bully her because of her appearance.
Isabela Merced as Jennifer Diaz - Jennifer was friends with Mia and Penelope. Jennifer used to regularly steal from and torment her classmates. Jennifer is described as one of the more urban girls in Los Angeles.
Lana Condor as Kate Onuki - Kate is the classmate and girlfriend of Simon.
Recurring Characters[]
Gary Oldman as Keith - Keith is the former teacher of the Sherman Junior High School 7th Grade Class B and administrator of the Battle Royale Program.