Julianna Margulies to Star in MGM+ Adaptation of Daisy Goodwin's The American Heiress
Julianna Margulies will star in an eight-part series adapted from Daisy Goodwin's 2011 book The American Heiress, MGM+ is set to air, Deadline reports.
The book is a romantic comedy of manners, a style of story that follows the social rules and marriage customs of its era for laughs and for tension. This adaptation is set across America's Gilded Age and England's Victorian era. Margulies plays Isabella Cash, a mother who takes her daughter Cora to England in 1893 to try to secure a title for her.
Goodwin is writing the adaptation's source material and is also an executive producer. She is best known to many viewers as the writer behind Victoria, the period drama that ran on ITV in the UK and on PBS in the US through its Masterpiece strand. Stacey Snider, chief creative officer at FilmNation, is also an executive producer.
The series is a co-production between FilmNation and Fifth Season. A co-production means two companies share the work of making a show, usually with each putting in money and creative staff. Fifth Season will handle global distribution, which means it will sell and license the series to broadcasters and platforms around the world.
Other executive producers named are Margulies, Damian Keogh, Stella Merz and Kirstie Macdonald, who is FilmNation TV's creative director. Joanna Crow will serve as series producer, with Gemma Wright as co-producer. Three directors are attached: Catherine Morshead, Sandra Goldbacher and Edward Hall.
The show will premiere on MGM+ in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Latin America. Deadline reports that production was set to begin in the UK in November 2026.
For the crew, that means a long stretch of work in front of them. Period dramas need costume makers, set builders, location teams and actors who can ride, dance and speak in the manner of the period. An eight-part run keeps all of those people employed for months.
The project brings together a British author, an American lead actor and a set of production companies that work on both sides of the Atlantic. It is one of several period series currently being made for international audiences, and it is the latest project to link MGM+ with the period drama that Goodwin has written before.
