PSA: Joe Alwyn Just Scored a Majorly Buzzy TV Role
Normal People kept us warm during the bitter and depressing spring of 2020. But it was a one-off miniseries adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel, not destined for a second season (unfortunately). Instead of torturing us emotionally with Normal People season 2, Hulu has decided to adapt Conversations With Friends, Rooney's 2017 debut novel, instead. Here's everything we know about Conversations With Friends on Hulu.
First, the fine print: Alice Birch and Lenny Abrahamson, the respective screenwriter and director chiefly responsible for adapting Rooney's Normal People to television for Hulu, are returning to collaborate on Conversations With Friends along with a team of writers, directors, and/or producers. So even though the cast and story are different, the vibe of this new series will certainly fulfill all your Normal People needs.
Who's going to be in Conversations With Friends?
So far, the most we know about this series is the cast. You've probably seen that Conversations With Friends will star actor, Taylor Swift boyfriend, and "Betty" co-writer Joe Alwyn (The Favourite) as Nick. His character is married to Melissa, who will be played by Jemima Kirke (Girls). The story is narrated, in the book at least, by their friend Frances — played by newcomer Alison Oliver, an Irish theatre actress fresh out of drama school. If you ask me, Oliver looks a heck of a lot like Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones... Rooney certainly has a type of protagonist. Rounding out the characters/cast is Frances' best friend Bobbi, played in the Hulu series by Sasha Lane (American Honey, Utopia).
There are a few other characters, primarily Frances' parents, who have yet to be cast.
What is Conversations With Friends about?
It's much juicier than the title would have you believe. Sure, there are friends. One assumes they will have conversations. It's about two defiantly unconventional college besties who happen to be ex-girlfriends, Frances and Bobbi, and get sucked into the very conventionally attractive life of Nick and Melissa, a married couple that's about a decade older than they are. Frances and Bobbi are poets, Melissa is a photographer/journalist, and Nick is a famous-ish actor. The relationship between the four of them gets more complicated and adulterous as the story continues.
According to Penguin Random House's official synopsis of the novel, "however amusing Frances and Nick’s flirtation seems at first, it begins to give way to a strange—and then painful—intimacy." Hmmm, strange and painful intimacy... sounds exactly like something the writer of Normal People would put us through. Gird your emotional loins, y'all. We're getting sad and sexy again.
Are they filming Conversations With Friends now?
Filming will take place in 2021 in (at least) Dublin and Belfast, per The Hollywood Reporter, but there aren't any dishy on-set photos to snoop at yet. Sorry 'bout it!
When is Conversations With Friends coming out?
The series is expected to hit Hulu next year, in 2022. Sooo much waiting, but it'll be worth it.
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