Everything We Know About 'Feud: Capote vs. The Swans'
Feud is finally returning with a glamorous dive into a scandal that rocked 1970s' Manhattan's high society. Six years after Ryan Murphy's drama anthology series debuted with the Emmy-winning Bette and Joan, the television mogul will bring the true story of author Truman Capote and his inner circle of socialites, whom he called his "swans," to the small screen.
The long-delayed FX miniseries, now subtitled Capote vs. The Swans, was first teased back in April 2022, when Deadline reported that the project would be an adaptation of Laurence Leamer's bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. The show will follow the author's life in NYC throughout the '70s, when he was at the height of his fame following the success of In Cold Blood and counted the city's most stylish and wealthy women as close friends. As the story continues towards Capote's death in 1984, we'll see the author betray several of his friends by publishing the scandalous 1975 short story “La Côte Basque 1965,” which exposed his friends innermost secrets.
Now, after months of anticipation, we have our first look at the glamorous new season. Read on for what we know about Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.
Feud: Capote vs. The Swans is premiering January 2024.
The eight episode limited series will premiere on FX on Wednesday, January 31, 2024. All episodes will be available to stream the next day on Hulu, per Deadline. FX also released the series's official trailer which features the main cast dolled up in black dresses with black swans adorning their shoulders.
The network debuted a set of first look images earlier this year, showing the series' star-studded cast in their period finery. They also shared that series is expected to arrive this winter.
The cast includes Chloe Sevigny, Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, and Tom Hollander.
Capote vs. The Swans has gathered a group of A-list stars to play the impossibly glamorous "swans," including Chloë Sevigny as Andy Warhol muse C. Z. Guest; Calista Flockhart as Jackie Kennedy’s younger sister Lee Radziwill; Demi Moore as Ann Woodward, the widow of banking heir Billy Woodward; Molly Ringwald as Johnny Carson’s second wife, Joanne Carson; Diane Lane as Slim Keith, the former wife of Howard Hawks who was credited with discovering Lauren Bacall; and Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, one of Capote’s closest friends and the wife of CBS founder William S. Paley.
As for Capote himself, Pride & Prejudice and The White Lotus star Tom Hollander will play the famed author. Tony and Pulitzer-nominated playwright Jon Robin Baitz will helm the miniseries, while Oscar-nominated director Gus Van Sant will direct all eight episodes.
Murphy calls the series "a story about ambition, friendship, and writer’s block."
In a Town & Country cover interview, Murphy teased the conflict at the center of the star-studded feud, hinting that the dissolution of Capote and Paley's friendship will be the emotional arc of the season.
“It was a story about ambition, friendship, and writer’s block,” Murphy said. “It was a story about how you top yourself, and whether you even can. And it was, at its core, a story about relationships between men and women, specifically gay men and their girlfriends. A feud is never about hatred; a feud is about pain, always. For the show to work, there had to be a great split that was about heartache as opposed to hatred, and Babe and Truman were at the center of that.”
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