‘Great Expectations’ Trailer Starring Olivia Colman and Fionn Whitehead

FX’s official trailer for Great Expectations provides our first good look at Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) as Miss Havisham and Fionn Whitehead (Emily) as Pip. The six-episode limited series will premiere on Hulu on March 26, 2023.

Based on Charles Dickens’s classic novel, the limited series also features Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella, Ashley Thomas as Jaggers, Johnny Harris as Magwitch, Hayley Squires as Sara Gargery, and Owen McDonnell as Joe Gargery. Laurie Ogden plays Biddy, Matt Berry is Mr. Pumblechook, Trystan Gravelle is Compeyson, and Rudi Dharmalingam is Wemmick.

The cast also includes Tom Sweet as Young Pip, Chloe Lea as Young Estella, Matthew Needham as Mr. Drummle, and Parth Thakerar as Herbert Pocket.

Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, See) adapted Dickens’s work and serves as an executive producer. Additional executive producers include Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, and Kate Crowe. Great Expectations is an FX production in association with the BBC, Scott Free, and Hardy Son & Baker.

Great Expectations Limited Series
Olivia Colman as “Miss Havisham” and Fionn Whitehead as “Pip” in ‘Great Expectations’ (Photo Credit: Miya Mizuno/FX)

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.