I firmly believe that, like Little Women and Wuthering Heights, every generation gets the Pride Prejudice they deserve. For those who came of age in the mid-’90s, that was the glorious BBC adaptation starring a note-perfect Jennifer Ehle and a wet-white-shirt-wearing Colin Firth. For those, like me, who grew up in the aughts, it was Joe Wright’s ravishing, Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen-led effort. (This is still, in my humble opinion, the best take on this literary classic.) And now, Gen Z is about to have their own: a six-part limited series reimagining of Jane Austen’s scintillating romp is coming to Netflix. And the cast is to die for.
On April 10, it was announced by the streamer that Golden Globe-winning period drama regular Emma Corrin (The Crown, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Nosferatu) would be taking the hotly contested part of Elizabeth Bennet, while Jack Lowden (Saoirse Ronan’s husband and the star of War Peace, Mary Queen of Scots, Benediction, and Slow Horses), would be the inscrutable Mr. Darcy. And as for the role of the wonderfully silly (and increasingly desperate) Mrs. Bennet? None other than Oscar winner Olivia Colman, Corrin’s fellow Crown alumni, will slip into her frilly bonnet.
More casting news followed on July 29: The Holiday, Scoop, and The Diplomat’s Rufus Sewell will be the wry Mr. Bennet; Industry’s Freya Mavor will be the angelic Jane Bennet; Heartstopper’s Rhea Norwood will be the flighty Lydia; and recent graduates Hollie Avery and Hopey Parish will make their screen debuts as the giggly Kitty and the somber Mary, respectively.
Then there’s internet boyfriend Louis Partridge as the dastardly Mr. Wickham; Fleabag’s Jamie Demetriou as the humorless Mr. Collins; Bad Sisters’ Daryl McCormack as the kindly Mr. Bingley; and the formidable Fiona Shaw as the terrifying Lady Catherine de Bourg, so memorably embodied by Dame Judi Dench in the 2005 version.
The supporting cast is rounded out with Domino Day’s Siena Kelly as the glamorous Caroline Bingley; We Are Lady Parts’ Anjana Vasan as the Bennet sisters’ aunt, Mrs. Gardiner; The Tudors’ Sebastian Armesto as her husband, Mr. Gardiner; Rosie Cavaliero as Lady Lucas; Justin Edwards as Sir William Lucas; Saffron Coomber as Mrs. Hurst, Bingley’s other sister; James Dryden as Mr. Hurst; James Northcote as Colonel Forster; Eloise Webb as Harriet Forster; and Isabella Sermon as the luminous Georgiana Darcy.
To top it all off, behind the camera will be another Vogue favorite: Dolly Alderton, the author of Everything I Know About Love, Ghosts, and Good Material, who will be penning this retelling and executive producing, too. “Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story and I feel very lucky that I get to be a part of it,” she said in a statement, released via Netflix. “Jane Austen’s Pride Prejudice is the blueprint for romantic comedy—it has been a joy to delve back into its pages to find both familiar and fresh ways of bringing this beloved book to life.”
But exactly how fresh will this adaptation be? Well, if you’re still up in arms about Margot Robbie’s period-inaccurate wedding dress from Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming Wuthering Heights, take comfort in the fact that this Pride Prejudice has been described as “a faithful, classic adaptation of the novel” which will “hew closely to the original text”—quite different, then, from Netflix’s last foray into the Austenian universe with Carrie Cracknell’s Persuasion, starring Henry Golding, Cosmo Jarvis, and a Fleabag-esque Dakota Johnson.
Taking the helm as director this time will be Heartstopper’s Euros Lyn, with production now underway in the UK, and a first look revealed, with the central sisters and their mother in costume. A couple of key parts—including, crucially, Elizabeth’s best friend, Charlotte Lucas—are still yet to be filled, so keep your eyes peeled for more news and behind-the-scenes glimpses.
