Kaitlyn Leeb Cast as Camille in ‘Shadowhunters’
Shadowhunters has found its Camille!
Kaitlyn Leeb has been cast as vampire Camille Belcourt in ABC Family’s adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments, the network announced on Friday.
This will be the first live-action appearance by Camille, who didn’t appear in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. In the books, her character isn’t mentioned until City of Glass and she doesn’t appear until City of Fallen Angels.
In Shadowhunters, Camille is described as “beautiful and cunning” and “the sexy leader of the New York vampire clan.”
Cassie Clare told us that while she hasn’t seen Kaitlyn’s audition she’s curious to see what the show does with Camille, as are we.
Here’s the press release that went out:
ABC FAMILY HAS CAST KAITLYN LEEB AS CAMILLE BELCOURT
FOR THE SAGA SERIES “SHADOWHUNTERS”
Burbank, CA (June 12, 2015) – ABC Family has cast Kaitlyn Leeb (“Heartland”) as Camille Belcourt. It was announced today by the network. Leeb will be a guest star on the series.
Based on the bestselling young adult fantasy book series The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, “Shadowhunters” follows 18-year-old Clary Fray, who finds out on her birthday that she is not who she thinks she is but rather comes from a long line of Shadowhunters – human-angel hybrids who hunt down demons. When her mother, Jocelyn, is kidnapped, Clary is thrown into the world of demon hunting with mysterious Shadowhunter Jace and her best friend, Simon. Now living among faeries, warlocks, vampires and werewolves, Clary begins a journey of self-discovery as she learns more about her past and what her future may hold.
Beautiful and cunning, Camille Belcourt is the sexy leader of the New York vampire clan.
“Shadowhunters” is produced by Constantin Film and executive produced by Ed Decter and McG. McG will also direct the first episode. The network has previously announced Katherine McNamara as Clary Fray, Dominic Sherwood for the role of Jace Wayland, Alberto Rosende as Simon, Emeraude Toubia as Isabelle Lightwood, Matthew Daddario as Alec Lightwood, Isaiah Mustafa as Luke Garroway Harry Shum Jr. as Magnus Bane.
Shadowhunters will premiere in early 2016 on ABC Family.
TMI Source 
I mean, she’s beautiful and everything but it’s just so radically different to how Camille is described in the books and how she looks in my head that it did throw me a bit. I’m interested to see what they’ll do with her character. I’m not going to judge anything until I see it for myself. I can’t say I wouldn’t prefer a more book accurate casting though.
My thoughts as well.
yes, she is gorgeous, but is she Camille? what I am worrying about most is the skin- not in a racist way, but as a vampire she is supposed to be very pale. I always imagined her with a snow white, blood red, and lacy black color theme. I hope they still capture the vampire side of her
I imagined her the same way, but hopefully she does book-Camille justice.
Vampires don’t have to have pale skin? I feel like everyone always forgets Raphael. I’m not really concerned about the fact that Kaitlyn doesn’t look like Camille, I’m more worried about what Camille is doing in the series so early.
Yep … that was my thought! … Unless, of course, they’re going to do Magnus Bane flashbacks (as in Arrow)??
And agreed on the other thing! – I’d much rather character chemistry and a roughly-visually-resembling-cast than exactness … I’d Assume that Alec and Isabelle speak with some sort of English accent given available shadow hunter canon – but having them of another ethnicity or accent doesn’t necessarily detract from the performance. Pick the top 5 visual descriptions of each book character … If the TV characters are trucking 3 of them, I think we’re doing ok!!
I’m not sure about the storyline deviations … not sold yet (Luke a cop?) … but I’m going in with an openminded rune firmly carved on my head!!
maybe they will put makeup to enhance her inner vampire look
she is gorgeous yes. very intriguing and wonderful
I’m glad they are bring in Magnus’s ex, probably mostly for the flashbacks. Fans were worried they’d have Magnus gay instead of Bi, seems like that isn’t the case.
Lol why is everyone worrying about her not looking like the exact description? If she got through the auditions, it clearly must mean she’s good enough so people stop fretting for goodness sake
Well, she does have that ageless look that Camille has because she’s lived for so long. But what I’m wondering is why was she cast so early. She doesn’t come in until later in the books, but she is mentioned, not seen, in the 1st book.
Please don’t mess up the plot of the books. I don’t know if it’s necessary to have Camille so soon. She’s kind of a surprise. At least, I didn’t know til City of fallen angels that Camille is actually the leader of the vampires.
But why are they casting her now?? They’re only on book one.
I don’t mind her I’m sure she’s a good actress . I’m. Not disappointed cause we knew they weren’t gonna follow the books exactly. besides this is the TV show Camille not the book Camille and who says a vampire cannot have dark skin that’s like implying that a person of color couldn’t become a vampire . It’s not like their skin would magically turn pale. I’m excited about it cause it’s rare to see people of color actually get a chance in televison these days. The important stuff is keywords like Camille breaks in French etc so I think Some people are overreacting we should be happy we’re getting a show at all?
agrees :]
OK so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with her casting, it did thrown me off a bit, since Camile is described in a very difrent way, but I will not judge until I see her acting. Now what I’m worried most about is that she was cast so early, maybe there is reason, like flashbacks or something. Maybe I’m just being worried over nothing, but I do hope that the show stays true to the books.
Is she French? Nope. damn. Hopefully this isn’t just a new character with the same name like Dot, but flashbacks would be awesome! Maybe to explain why Raphael is currently in charge.
Hopefully Maureen will actually be blonde, we’ve got none so far haha
Ok she certainly looks beautiful and seductive, which Camille is, but… I do have a problem with the fact that apparently it doesn´t matter to change the looks of some characters almost completely, while it would be considered racist or something if Maia was not exactly as she was described in the books.
Camille was blonde in the books and maybe it´s stupid, but that´s kinda important to me… It gave a whole other image in my head. But that´s just my opinion.
That´s no hating against Kaitlyn. She´ll probably do a damn good job with her role.
I agree with you. I think it’s great that there are many characters of colour but I would have liked if they stayed true to the description of the book with some of them, like Camille.
I don’t like being an hypocrit so I’ll say what’s on my mind.. She is NOT suite for Camille’s role. I’m okay with small changes in characters appearance, but here.. nope! Camille Belcourt is French. That girl looks nothing like a how-old centuries old French lady (and I know what i’m talking about, I am). As far as I know, Camille is old. Meaning I don’t know, at least living during the 17th ou 18th century. And at the time, there were no tan-skinned French ladies out there. She is described in books as a sexy fair blond beauty. The actress they picked got nothing of that. IMO she would do a greater Maia Roberts. She doesn’t have the “sexy vampire queen” vibe for me.. I’m already wondering if our Alec will get his blue contact lenses (because that’s an important detail), same for Jace’s amber-gold eyes (because hell! It IS is angelic side showing up, and that’s his main characteristic, apart from his self-loving self and his sassiness of course).
You guys may think whatever you want but for me, this pretty girl is not Camille Belcourt. Here is what a “French Vampire Queen” should look like : http://i.imgur.com/xxSI3.gif
Here’s my take on the show so far, though granted we don’t know much yet:
Th most important thing for me is that they keep to the spirit of the book and don’t actively try to make plot changes. That being said, here’s my pros and cons list (cuz nobody likes reading giant paragraphs).
Pros:
~Casting is on point. Dominic Sherwood’s clip shows he looks great “hunting” and I absolutely LOVED the acting of Alan Van Sprang as Valentine. He was one of the best actors in Reign and will be an amazing zealot :).
~The sets look great. From the Institute to Pandemonium to Simon’s van it looks totally accurate.
~They cast Harry Shum Jr. as Magnus. This gets its own point because it is literally the perfect casting and boy can our Magnus dance.
~For those of you freaking our about Camille not being pale, calm down. We haven’t seen her in action yet and she did manage to win the role so let’s see what she has up her sleeve.
Cons:
~Who is Captain Vargas? Why is Luke a Detective? In the first book demons often disguise themselves as the police, not werewolves/shadowhunters. And PLEASE don’t make a love triangle with Luke/Vargas/Jocelyn, the two have a hard enough time getting over their past and being together as it is. Plus personally I really like books (as I’m sure is the case with most of us on this site) so Luke owning a book store made me like him that much more and respect Clary more intellectually.
My guess: There are taking from the abandoned police headquarters in the book where the Pack lives and Luke’s desire to act like a Shadowhunter again and use his skills, since Shadowhunters are the police of demons and downworlders. Plus it gives him more access to knowledge on suspicious and potentially demon activity, or maybe even the potential whereabouts of Valentine.
My somewhat crazy theory: Most of Luke’s pack are cops and that’s how they operate. This one seems a little far fetched and presents lots of problems…
So while I’m still skeptical on lots of things and seriously concerned about the whole Captain Vargas issue, I’m still really hopeful for the series. They have made a lot of good moves so far and hopefully they learned from the mistakes made in the movie with too much deviating from the book.
Agree/Disagree?
Camille? She would have been perfect for Maia..
When I woke up this morning before I checked to see who our Camille was, I was just thinking how great it would be if Camille wasn’t the typical blonde beauty and then I was surprised with this! So happy, she looks absolutely beautiful. I’m really interested to see how the show incorporates Camille this early.
She could always wear a wig or dye her hair for a more exotic look. Jessica Alba can rock it why not her?
My first thought was “Who the hell is Camille?”
Then I was like “Oh. OH! Camille” 😛
She’s so freaking pretty though
I feel like a lot of people are surprised they would bring her in so early but it actually makes sense with a TV plot. Things are going to be different within books and TV and even movies and TV. I’m sure the directors understand their choices because books and a show are not going to be presented in the same way
People need to stop worrying when things deviate from the plot, many TV shows adapted from books change the plots a lot – its more like taking the ide for the universe and running with it. Like the 100 where they keep a character alive who dies very early in the book, and ends up having an interesting story line. Or for a more extreme example, The Musketeers, where they have kept almost nothing the same except for the basic premise and general character outlines and yet it is one of my favorite TV shows.
I think we should watch this series as an awesome TV show with a premise that we know is good, and not try to compare it against the books when its not pretending to be the same thing, its an adaptation from the books meaning things will be adapted.
Either watch it and be willing to enjoy all the changes, or don’t watch it and therefore don’t worry about what is happening and start getting angry.
You don’t have to love everything they do, but if it is just because you won’t accept any changes then you can just ignore it and not try to argue against it on the basis that they are changing things.
My idea in the whole Camille-being-cast-so-early is that maybe they’ll put her in the background during the vampire lair scene or something. But that’s my guess, and I’m usually wrong.
And unfortunately, I don’t see her as Camille. Though she looks exactly like I pictured Maia, tbh.
Let’s not forget that Kaitlyn is Canadian so there is a high possibility that she speaks great French. She is also half Chinese – China has been trading with Europe for centuries so her appearance would absolutely make sense with her history. Also; my guess would be that she is the current leader of the clan (as stated) and then she gets framed by Raphael for the murders of humans and flees – this becomes a side plot that we actually see running along the main story lines. Because is that not what supposedly happened in the books???
I thought Camille was blonde but meh I’m not going to let 1 hair colour change make me hate her. I think she’ll do a great job playing the sexy, alluring and tragic backstory Camille! Although, yeah if there’s ever references to Infernal Devices or flashbacks then….hmm not sure sher could pull Victorian off then again in The Vampire Diaries they managed for quite a few characters so I’m sure they’ll do fine! WHOOO YAY FOR CAMILLE CASTING!!! 😀 😀 😀
How/Why did they cast a Camille before they casted a Maia?