Anya Taylor-Joy is about to teach the world How to Kill Your Family — or she’ll at least reveal some murderous tips and tricks as Grace Bernard, the protagonist of the forthcoming British series, inspired by Bella Mackie’s 2021 novel. Taylor-Joy “is the most perfect fit to play Grace,” Mackie said. “I often think she understands her better than I do.”
Joining Taylor-Joy in the cast are Clive Owen (Kristallnacht, The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey), Orlando Norman (The Body, Silo) and David Shields (Black Mirror, Masters of the Air). The series is produced by Sid Gentle Films and LadyKiller for Netflix, with production starting this fall.
Taylor-Joy’s Grace is the forgotten child of Simon Artemis, a merciless billionaire. After a heartbreaking rejection, Grace decides to exact revenge. But will this deadly scheme take even more from Grace than she’s already lost? The Queen’s Gambit breakout Taylor-Joy is excited to go on Grace’s twisty TV journey alongside Extraordinary creator Emma Moran, How to Kill Your Family’s writer and executive producer.
“As soon as I turned the last page, I knew I had to be a part of bringing this story to life,” Taylor-Joy told Netflix. “After some (light) stalking of the inimitable Bella Mackie, I could not be more thrilled to be collaborating with the team that is executive producers Sally Woodward Gentle, Lizzie Rusbridger, and Emma Moran. I am looking forward to getting our hands even dirtier.”
You too can dig into How to Kill Your Family right now. Keep reading for your full dossier on the upcoming drama.
The eight-episode series follows Grace, who has a complicated family. Her dad is Simon Artemis, a billionaire and ruthless social climber. Grace is the product of an affair Simon claims not to remember, which left Grace and her mom to fend for themselves. When her mother dies and Grace is rejected by the people who should love her, she transforms her anger into something useful — killing off her estranged extended family via morbidly creative means. Soon, Grace is clawing her way toward revenge and a hefty inheritance. But her mission pulls her away from what she really needs.
Writer Moran felt an “immediate kinship” with How to Kill Your Family’s fascinating protagonist. “She’s the kind of complicated, dark, but utterly hilarious antihero you dream of writing,” she said. “Striking that balance between camp fun and brutal violence that Bella hits so perfectly in the book is a challenge I’m so looking forward to. I’ve never had more fun on a project with such a high body count.”
Taylor-Joy — who won a SAG Award and Golden Globe for her powerful turn as Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit — will lead How to Kill Your Family as Grace. Joining Taylor-Joy are Clive Owen, Orlando Norman, and David Shields. Keep coming to Tudum to learn who else will be coming aboard the perilous odyssey.
How to Kill Your Family is the first Netflix series from Sid Gentle Films Ltd., which also produced the Emmy darling Killing Eve. Writer Moran is an executive producer, along with Woodward Gentle, Rusbridger, and Lee Morris. Taylor-Joy is also an EP for LadyKiller Productions Inc. How to Kill Your Family author Mackie has signed on as a co-executive producer.
Woodward Gentle is “thrilled” by the assembled team. “Emma Moran is a magical talent with a unique voice. The excitement is already palpable in the writers’ room as Anya, Lizzie, and the team explore Bella’s rip-roaring, take-no-prisoners, satirically pitch-black novel,” she said. The EP promises “twists and darker crimes” as we get to know Grace and those around her.
“Anya is a fantastic collaborator and couldn’t be a more perfect actor to inhabit Grace — sophisticated, multilayered, dangerously funny, and desperately intuitive,” Woodward Gentle said.
Yes — Mackie’s How to Kill your Family has been slaying on the bestseller charts since its debut in 2021. The novel has sold 1.2 million copies.
“It’s been thrilling to watch the characters I wrote take on new life under this magnificent creative team,” Mackie said. “Pairing up with Sid Gentle has been joyful, and introducing me to Emma has made me supremely confident the book is in safe hands.”
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