Selene is a fictional character from the Underworld series. She is the primary protagonist of the films Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, and Underworld: Awakening. Her lover is Michael Corvin, and together they now have a daughter, named Eve.

Selene is portrayed by Kate Beckinsale, and by Beckinsale's daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, in Underworld: Evolution in flashback scenes as a child. Her stunt double for the first two movies was Nicole Randall, and Alicia Vela-Bailey in Underworld: Awakening. In Underworld: Endless War, Selene is voiced by Canadian voice actress, Laura Harris.

Biography

Backstory
As revealed in the first & second films, Selene was born to a Hungarian family; her father, mother, her older sister, and her baby nieces. Selene is estimated to have been born around the year 1383.

At some point, Selene's father was approached by a powerful warlord named Viktor with a commission to design and build a prison. According to the novelizations, Selene's father was well known as both a stone mason and blacksmith; and the commission had involved the excavation of a new dungeon and prison under a fortress of Viktor's, as well as striking two unique keys for one cell in particular. Selene was around 6-7-years-old when work on the prison completed.

Seven years later, at around the age of 13 to 14 years, Selene became an aunt to her older sister's twin daughters.

During the winter of Lucian's escape, about 6-years-later, Viktor feared that Lucian may know of William, the progenitor of all werewolves, (given that Lucian, whether he knew it or not, was now holding one of the keys to William's prison): To Keep the Location of William's prison a secret, Viktor personally killed everyone involved in the construction of the prison and anyone who may have visited or seen the fortress. One night, Viktor prowled into the farm of Selene's family, killed, and fed upon them one-by-one. When he came across Selene, however, he found that he 'could not bear the thought of draining [her] dry', (as described by Kraven) '[Selene], who reminded him so much of his precious Sonja'.

That night Viktor turned Selene into a vampire — according to the Underworld: Evolution novelization, Selene was 19 years old when Viktor turned her — and led her to believe that the culprits of the murder of her family were Lycans and that Viktor had saved her from them. He claimed to have been tracking The Lycans when they led him to her family's farm. With the strength of a vampire, Viktor told Selene, she could avenge them all. Selene was the only survivor to have walked through the corridors of the fortress. Viktor did not kill her because of her resemblance to his deceased daughter and his belief that she would have been much too young to remember where exactly the fortress' location was.

Selene would go on to become a Death Dealer, fighting against the Lycans for vengeance on the atrocities she believed they had committed against her family. For the centuries that followed, (the better part of a thousand years,) she would serve under Viktor with blind loyalty, remaining in the dark about her family's murder by none other than Viktor himself.

On Viktor's orders, Selene would exile Andreas Tanis, the Coven's official historian. At some point, she would also become the unwilling object of Kraven, the Coven's regent, romantic interests.


Underworld
After a confrontation with the Lycan hitman Raze, she discovered what was supposedly a Lycan lair. She was angry when Kraven dismissed her claims, not knowing that Kraven was in league with the Lycan leader Lucian in a bid to take over the control of the vampire realm from the Elders.

She tracked down Michael Corvin, in whom she believed the Lycans had an interest. Against the sacred laws of The Vampire Covenant, she and Michael, who was infected with the lycanthropy virus, fell in love.

She awakens Viktor from his deep slumber (torpor), believing that only he has the power to deal with the conspiracy between Kraven and Lucian. She then leads a mass assault on the Lycans' underground bunker.

After Michael was shot with silver nitrate by Kraven, Selene was forced to infect Michael with her vampire strain in order to save his life, thus making him the first hybrid, a Lycan dominant hybrid. She also learned the truth about the identity of her family's killer from Kraven; she struck Viktor down while the Elder was preoccupied fighting Michael. She then retrieved Sonja's pendant, carrying-on her legacy.


Underworld: Evolution
In Underworld: Evolution, after Viktor's death, Selene and Michael went on the run from both Lycans and Vampires. They were confronted by Marcus, the last surviving Vampire Elder. He was now a Vampire-Dominant Hybrid, due to his ingesting the blood of Lycan scientist Singe, which had seeped into his chamber. As Marcus attacks her, Michael intervenes and battles him to protect her.

After narrowly escaping Marcus and the sunlight, Selene and Michael take refuge in a warehouse and begin a sexual relationship. Selene also finds that she has seen the pendant that Marcus was trying to get, when she was a child. In order to find out why Marcus was after the pendant, she sought out Andreas Tanis. Tanis told her the truth about her family's slaughter, (they were killed after Lucian began his revolution to keep William from being freed,) and revealed to her that, contrary to popular belief, Marcus, not Viktor, is the original vampire.

He then set up a meeting for her and Michael with Alexander Corvinus, Marcus's father and the first true immortal. Selene was angered at Alexander for not removing the threat his sons, Marcus and William, posed long ago. Alexander retorted by asking her if she would murder her own son. An interruption by Marcus, in which Michael is seemingly killed, also results in Selene's memories of the fortress to be revealed to Marcus through her blood. Alexander, dying from his son's attack, told Selene that the only way to defeat Marcus and William would be to drink his legendary immortal blood, adding that she would become "The Future". Selene gained greater strength and new powers from Alexander's blood.

She and a squad of Alexander's Cleaners, (who, like Michael, are Alexander's descendants through his third son,) invaded William's dungeon, trying to stop the threat. They arrived too late, however, and Selene was forced to fight Marcus. Marcus was shocked at the smell of his father's blood coursing through Selene's veins. Locking Marcus in William's dungeon, Selene discovered that William had infected all surviving members of the six Cleaners escorting her, all of which have become Lycans themselves.

On the verge of being overwhelmed she was saved by Michael, who was revived by his resilient Hybrid powers. Marcus had killed the last remaining Cleaners who were operating a helicopter which provided close air support/suppressing-fire. When it crashed, the rotors continued to spin dangerously close to those in the fray.

Selene fought Marcus once more, and the Elder drove his wing talon through Selene's chest. Selene, empowered by Alexander's ancient and pure blood, tore away the talon and drove it upwards through Marcus's skull before throwing him into the moving rotor blades and killing him. After Selene defeats Marcus and Michael defeats William, sunlight lands on Selene's arm, revealing that Alexander's blood has purged the vampiric weakness to sunlight.


Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Selene briefly appears at the end of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which was also the opening scene of the first Underworld, with the audio from the scene where Kraven tells Selene that it was Viktor who murdered her family, rather than the Lycans, and that Viktor spared her because she reminded him of the daughter he condemned to death; Selene replies to Kraven, "Lies."


Underworld: Awakening
In Underworld: Awakening, Selene escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species. However, Selene and her two new allies; David, (a young vampire,) and Detective Sebastian, (who lost his wife after being discovered as a vampire), discover a hidden conspiracy from rogue members of the Lycan clan within the humans' war against both species, and also finds that she has mothered a child with Michael, Eve, who was born during Selene's suspended animation.

Despite their never having met or become acquainted with one another since Eve's birth, Selene ultimately bonds with her daughter. Selene battles to rescue Eve and Michael, facing a 'Super Lycan', with abilities similar to her own including incredible healing rate and an immunity to silver. Eventually Selene kills the Super Lycan, and rescues Eve, who kills the Lycan doctor in charge, but when they go to rescue Michael (whom Selene had found and weakened the cryogenic tank of earlier), they find that he has already escaped and are unable to locate him, but Selene knows he will be hunted like Eve was.

Earlier in the film David offers her the opportunity to return to the vampire coven, in hopes she will consent to train a new generation of Death Dealers in response to both the human and Lycan threats, as many of their numbers are either in hiding from their enemies or dead.

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