I firmly believe that, like and , every generation gets the 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 noughties, 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 are about to have their own: a new six-part limited series reimagining of Jane Austen’s scintillating romp will shortly arrive on Netflix, and the cast is to die for.
Emma Corrin as Elizabeth, Freya Mavor as Jane, Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet, Hopey Parish as Mary, Rhea Norwood as Lydia and Hollie Avery as Kitty.
On 10 April 2025, it was announced by the streamer that Golden Globe-winning period drama regular Emma Corrin (, , ) would be taking the hotly-contested part of Elizabeth Bennet, while Jack Lowden, Saoirse Ronan’s husband and star of , , and , 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 alumni, will slip into her frilly bonnet.
More casting news followed on 29 July: , and ’s Rufus Sewell will be the wry Mr Bennet; ’s Freya Mavor will be the angelic Jane Bennet; ’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 sombre Mary, respectively.
Then there’s internet boyfriend Louis Partridge as the dastardly Mr Wickham; ’s Jamie Demetriou as the humourless Mr Collins; ’ 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 ’s Siena Kelly as the glamorous Caroline Bingley; ’ Anjana Vasan as the Bennet sisters’ aunt, Mrs Gardiner; ’ 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 British favourite: Dolly Alderton, the author of Everything I Know About Love, and , who adapted that former memoir into the fictionalised BBC show of the same name. The author shared her funny, intimate and illuminating day-to-day diary of making the TV event of the year in the October 2026 issue of British , which you can read here.
But exactly fresh will this adaptation be? Well, if you’re still up in arms about Margot Robbie and Emerald Fennell’s period-inaccurate , take comfort in the fact that this 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 , starring Henry Golding, Cosmo Jarvis and a -esque Dakota Johnson.
Taking the helm as director this time will be ’s Euros Lyn, and a full, swoon-worthy trailer arrived on 28 October ahead of the 3 December release. Watch it here: