Becky, played by Lulu Wilson, has been kicking Nazi ass for the past six years. The unforgiving, plucky preteen fended off swastika-laden bad guys starting in 2020’s BECKY, and her luck did not improve from there. In 2023’s THE WRATH OF BECKY, it was the same thing again, only with more weapons and a higher body count in her wake. Now, in THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY (coming to theaters this Wednesday, November 4 from Quiver Distribution), the now-adult, still-blonde young woman has been recruited into the CIA, and travels to Poland to stop Wilhelm Reuss (Neil Patrick Harris) from spearheading the rise of a Fourth Reich. Using her fighting skills for the greater good is a natural extension of the character, and she is in great hands with director Jenn Wexler (THE RANGER, THE SACRIFICE GAME). RUE MORGUE sat down with Wilson and Wexler the morning of the film’s world premiere at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival to talk swords, anger, and insects.
I’d love to hear about some of your early conversations about revisiting Becky.
JENN WEXLER: I was a fan of the movies, starting with the first one. I wanted to be aware that I was a guest of this franchise. I was like, “Lulu, tell me everything. I know what I’ve seen in the movies, but let’s get into the nuances.”
LULU WILSON: We connected immediately. We all had kind of the same vision for where Becky would be at this stage in her life. That was what was most important to me, because I think Becky could very easily have devolved into an angry girl who’s just violent and unlikable. But it was important for me to have her not be that way. Our immediate connection on that was what really got us going. Then when we were actually in Belfast [where LAST TEMPTATION was shot], we sat down and went through pretty much every important beat in the script. That was when we really started to blossom. It was very cool.
WEXLER: I think a big part of it is that you just hang.
WILSON: Yeah, exactly. You have to get along. You have to have the same—it doesn’t have to be exactly the same—but there has to be some collaboration and agreement. And I got really lucky that Jenn was the one.
WEXLER: When you’re in the middle of shooting, there’s just so much stuff going on, so the early conversations are important.
Did you have much time for rehearsal?
WILSON: There kind of had to be a lot of rehearsal, because there was so much stunt choreography in those big fight sequences. Specifically the swords, both fencing sequences, and then also the big fight at the end. There was tons of rehearsal for that. It was really fun. It was almost like doing a big, violent dance. And I can’t dance, but I can listen to people tell me where to put my arms and my legs. It was a blast. I always prefer to be way overprepared rather than underprepared. So I’m always happy. If you put me in a situation with two weeks of rehearsal, yes!
WEXLER: Also, she has a fencing background.
WILSON: Yeah. I forced fencing to be in this script. I have been fencing since I was 11, and I’ve never used a sword in any movie, except this one. Which is surprising because of the production value. Every time I tell people, “I’m an actor and I fence,” they’re like, “You must sell a lot.” Never, not once. Not unless I ask [laughs].
WEXLER: I think you should be in more period pieces.
WILSON: I think so, too.
WEXLER: You should be in castle movies. Pirates would be good!
WILSON: Yeah. I’d do a pirate movie.
I was going to ask you about Becky’s new sword skills…
WILSON: Fencing makes so much sense to me for Becky. Because it’s an art, and it’s also a sport. It’s something to get her aggression out. And it’s a sword. It’s a gadget. And it didn’t take much pushing for it to be in the script.
WEXLER: It just makes sense that, of course, she’s at the CIA learning how to fence and fight.
WILSON: And the scene with Louisa [Aoife Hughes] was also amazing. There was a lot of rehearsal, too. It was really cool. It was also great to work with stuntpeople who were familiar with swords. It was very fulfilling for me, personally.
WEXLER: I’ll also say that our staff coordinator, Drew Leary, loves sword fights, and he said he rarely gets to do them. There just aren’t that many sword fights [in current movies].
WILSON: No, there aren’t, and people assume that there are. There are not enough. But there’ll be a renaissance.
Now that swords have been added, what martial art do you think Becky will take up next?
WEXLER: Krav Maga?
WILSON: I have never done Krav Maga, but I’ve always wanted to. I could see her boxing, too. I used to box. What’s another niche? Horse riding. I could see her doing horseback riding. In my mind, the next BECKY, if it happens, is more Western BECKY. And she’s on a horse, gunslinging. I could see that. She’s lassoing people—and the lasso has spikes on it.
WEXLER: It writes itself.
WILSON: Just brainstorming.
The scale of THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY is much larger than the previous films, as well as Jenn’s previous movies. How did you scale this up?
WILSON: The writing called for lots of locations. It’s just bigger. For me, that was a little bit nerve-wracking because I went from the first BECKY, where she’s an amateur. She’s 13. She’s [HOME ALONE’s] Kevin McCallister. And second BECKY, kind of similar, though she’s got some real weapons. But now she’s a spy. She’s an international weapon. When I was younger, I really wanted to be a spy, so this was a really big deal for me. I get to do what I’ve always wanted to do. It was amazing. I think we pulled it off.
And getting to film in Belfast and at all those dilapidated castle locations was amazing. Before, the most interesting place I had been was probably Toronto filming the first BECKY. So it was really cool. It was an amazing experience.
WEXLER: In the series, each movie feels bigger and wilder than the last one. I love the original, and it just feels a little bit more serious. It’s like a throwback to gritty ’70s home invasion movies. And then the second one felt more colorful and more fun. So this one, with the premise that she’s now the youngest CIA agent, is now an international spy thriller. The film wanted to be slick, and we were looking to movies like the James Bond and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE films. But what’s the BECKY version of those movies? We had to filter all of that through Becky’s angsty teen POV. So that led us to what our approach would be.
How did you make sure to keep pushing the mayhem in this BECKY? Was there a point where you thought something might be a bit too much?
WEXLER: Because of where the movie goes, I don’t think there was ever that point. Nothing’s too much. In fact, it was our responsibility to set it up tonally so that we could end up there. We had to make each moment build toward that third-act setpiece. When we asked, “Is this a little too wild?” No, it’s not. Because we end up over there.
The cast is much larger this time too. Did you have people in mind for these roles? Neil Patrick Harris is an amazing addition.
WEXLER: Actually, in this situation, he was attached before I came on. But yes, that’s perfect casting. And yes, I want to be involved now.
I love that Becky is never just a killing machine. She’s very focused on protecting the people she loves.
WILSON: I think at the point she’s in now, she doesn’t really know how to trust. She wants to; I think you see that a little bit with her and Brandon’s [Flynn] character. She’s developing this friendship, almost, with him. But it’s still that kind of angsty, “Ugh, I hate you” type of vibe. She can’t bring herself to do that. In all of her scenes where she was committing ultraviolence, I always wanted her to be thinking about why she was doing this. She’s avenging her family. She lost everyone and everything. Not just to these neo-Nazi people and her mom to cancer. She’s lived a life of loss, and at this point, she’s got nothing left to lose. That desperation was important.
WEXLER: I also think that in pop culture, we’re so used to seeing, like, middle-aged men in these antihero roles. “I must avenge my family.” It makes way more sense that a teen girl is having these emotions. I have to keep exploring this. She’s lost in it. The things that happened in her childhood shaped her. These are her core wounds.
What scares you?
WEXLER: Wait, hold on. Let me think first. I don’t know. It’s a big one.
WILSON: I watch so much true crime. Getting into an Uber scares me. People scare me. Genuinely. I’m always prepared for the worst. You know what? No, I have a better answer. Flies. Flies really scare me. They’re so disgusting to me. I love spiders. I don’t kill spiders.
WEXLER: So, I’m going to copy her a little bit and say insects in general. I’ll also say snakes and things. I know where it started, which is when I watched THE CRAFT when I was a kid. There’s that sequence where Sarah’s walking through her house and there’s bugs everywhere. That put something deep in my soul and psyche.
