Bates Motel season 5: Rihanna to play Janet Leigh character Marion Crane in Psycho spin-off

Executive producer Carlton Cuse revealed the singer is a longtime fan of the series

Having built up a cult fanbase since initially airing in 2013, Bates Motel - a prequel spin-off to classic Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho - will come to an end next year.

Despite being set in an alternate universe to the 1960 horror, a panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2016 revealed that Marion Crane - the character memorably played by Janet Leigh - is to appear in the show's fifth and final season played by none other than Rihanna.

The singer was announced to play the role in a video which was shown during the TV series' panel attended by the show's stars Freddie Highmore, Vera Farmiga and Nestor Carbonell as well as executive producer Carlton Cuse (Lost).

Cuse described Rihanna's casting as a plan five years in the making.

“I read this article in which she said she was a fan of Bates Motel [so] we asked and she said yes," he explained. "It was awesome. We’re really excited about it. It really feels very much like the version of the character that is different from the movie.”

Crane is the character at the centre of the film's iconic shower death scene; whether that moment will be reincarnated in the series remains to be seen.

The series stars Highmore as Norman Bates, the psychotic villain made famous by Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock's classic. It was also revealed that The Conjuring actor Farmiga - who plays the role of Norman's mother, Norma - was to return despite a season four twist seeming to write her out.

Cuse confirmed: “The final season of the show would really be Norman in his full-blown psychopathology, more like the character in the movie - but that doesn’t mean that Norma will not have a role. In fact, she has a huge role but she’ll be Norman’s imagining of her."

Bates Motel will air its final season in 2017.