Fan CastingTHE GREAT PRETENDER (2031)

Paris, 1744. A filthy gravedigger, Etienne “Titi” Renard, spends his days robbing corpses and telling tall tales to drunks in a seedy tavern. He dreams of wealth and status but has the charm of a wet rat and the luck of a dead one. One night, after a particularly drunken brawl, Titi is caught by the King’s Men but instead of being executed, a paranoid royal advisor, Marquis de Vauquelin, mistakes him for the bastard son of King Louis XV, supposedly lost at birth. Desperate to win the king’s favor, the marquis presents Titi at Versailles, where the court erupts into chaos over his sudden appearance. While some nobles are eager to welcome a new prince, others—including the actual Dauphin—want him dead. Just as Titi is about to be crowned "Prince Étienne", the real truth is revealed: He’s not royal. He was never even French—he was stolen from an English orphanage. He accidentally signed a declaration of war against Prussia. As chaos erupts, Titi does the only thing he knows how to do—run.