FX has finally set a premiere date for its Great Expectations limited series from writer/executive producer Steven Knight (See, Peaky Blinders, Taboo). The six-part adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic novel will premiere on Sunday, March 26, 2023 on Hulu with the release of the first two episodes.
The cast was announced in February 2022 and the first two official photos arrived in July 2022. FX chose to announce the premiere date on Charles Dickens’s birthday. (Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Landport, Portsmouth, United Kingdom.)
The premiere date announcement was accompanied by the series’ poster, along with a description of what the artwork represents:
“The newly released key art, true to FX and Steven Knight’s style, features one of literature’s most iconic characters, Miss Havisham ensnaring her pawns, Pip and Estella, in the headdress she still wears from her wedding that never was. Entangled in Miss Havisham’s bitter web are memorable elements from the tale including the decaying Satis House, clocks stopped at 20 minutes to nine, as well as the prison ship and manacles that led Magwitch to Pip, thus beginning the story of Dickens’s beloved Great Expectations.”
The six-episode series stars Fionn Whitehead as Pip and Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham. The cast also includes Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle, Laurie Ogden, Rudi Dharmalingam, Tom Sweet, Chloe Lea, and Matt Berry. Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, and Kate Crowe serve as producers, and Brady Hood and Samira Radsi direct.
The limited series is produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, Scott Free, and Hardy Son & Baker.
The Plot:
Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of Pip, an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life until a twist of fate and the evil machinations of the mysterious and eccentric Miss Havisham shows him a dark world of possibilities. Under the great expectations placed upon him, Pip will have to work out the true cost of this new world and whether it will truly make him the man he wishes to be.
A damning critique of the class system, Dickens’ novel was published in 1861 after first releasing it in a series of weekly chapters beginning in December 1860.
