Borderlands Movie Adds Janina Gavankar As New Character Commander Knoxx

Actress Janina Gavankar, who played Iden Versio in Star Wars: Battlefront II the video game and who recently starred opposite Ben Affleck in The Way Back, has joined the Borderlands movie. Randy Pitchford, the head of developer Gearbox and a producer on the film, confirmed Gavankar’s casting in a tweet today.

Gavankar will play a brand-new character named Commander Knoxx. She is the daughter of General Knoxx and works for Atlas’ private army.

“Janina Gavankar will join the cast of the Borderlands movie as an all-new character I named specifically for this story,” he said. Janina will play Commander Knoxx, who followed in her father’s footsteps when she joined Atlas’ private army, the Crimson Lance. She is, in a word, badass,” Pitchford said.

Gavankar joins a stacked cast for the Borderlands movie that already includes Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramirez, and more.

Borderlands Movie Cast

• Cate Blanchett — Lilith
• Jamie Lee Curtis — Tannis
• Edgar Ramirez — Atlas
• Jack Black — Claptrap
• Kevin Hart — Roland
• Ariana Greenblatt — Tiny Tina
• Florian Munteanu — Kreig
• Janina Gavankar — Commander Knoxx
• Olivier Richters — Krom
• Haley Bennett — Unannounced new character

Gavankar herself commented on the news, saying she’s prepared to do her best to honor the fans and developers of the Borderlands series.

Eli Roth (Hostel, Inglourious Basterds) is directing the Borderlands movie off a script by Craig Mazin, who is also writing HBO’s The Last of Us TV show. Filming is set to take place, at least in part, in Budapest, but there is no word yet on a release date.

Recently, Pitchford clarified that there is a distinction between what he called the Borderlands Cinematic Universe and the Borderlands Video Game Universe.

“We are authentic to characters, tone and style, but allow for independent storylines. The mediums are not the same, so the content should not be bound to the same rules,” he said.

Pitchford also touched on the subject of whether or not the Borderlands movie is canon. It is canon, but only to the cinematic universe of Borderlands, he clarified.

“The movie is canon to the cinematic universe. The games are canon to the video game universe. There are parallels between them, but also differences. It’s okay. Consider how Marvel has handled movies versus comic books for reference if this is hard for you to understand,” he said on Twitter.

As for the Borderlands game series, the Borderlands 3 Director’s Cut released on April 8 following a delay related to the terrible storms in the studio’s home state of Texas.