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When the trailer for Blake Lively’s new film, The Shallows, was released in March 2016, we were a little, well, underwhelmed. Disenchanted, even. For months we’d been teased with tanned and toned photos of the 28-year-old filming on Lord Howe Island, 600km off the east coast of New South Wales. And since this is one of just a few titles Lively has worked on since Gossip Girl wrapped in 2012, we wondered if this was the role we’d been waiting for.

Was this the role where Blake Lively would become to film what Blake Lively already is to fashion?

Would it be the film that delivers a career-defining heroine who rivals Serena van der Woodsen and who isn’t Adaline Bowman? Time will tell. The actress plays Nancy, who, after the loss of her mum, goes for a swim on an isolated beach but becomes stranded on a small island from shore. The only thing keeping her company is a huge great white shark.

 

The issue with this trailer has more to do with us comparing Nancy and Serena than it does about the plotline (although this does pose a big question). By it’s sixth season, we knew what to expect with Gossip Girl; we knew it’s rhythm, we knew its way. We knew Blair would always throw some reference-heavy shade at Serena. We knew Serena, by comparison, would seem chilled and level-headed only to disappear, sleep with someone she shouldn’t or become addicted to drugs. And there was always an extra blonde female character in Ivy, Jenny or Juliet to stir up trouble as part of a subplot. But it was ok because we always knew amidst the schemes that everyone would come together at a fancy dress party and the world – on the Upper East side anyway – would make sense again. With a minimalist cast in The Shallows – there are just three in total – will Lively be able to carry an entire film herself? Or the bigger question: Will we be able to un-see Serena van der Woodsen meddling with that shark?

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Perhaps her next role as part of Woody Allen’s Café Society (alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell) will do the trick.

The Shallows is in cinemas August 18.

Cover Image: Getty Images
Title Image: Getty Images