‘Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light’ First Look Sees Kate Phillips Reprise Role as Henry VIII’s Short-Lived Third Wife Jane Seymour
The long-awaited adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novel “The Mirror and the Light” has wrapped.
In the first images from the production, released by the BBC and Masterpiece PBS, Kate Phillips can be seen reprising her role as King Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour, while Mark Rylance returns as the king’s chief advisor Thomas Cromwell and Damien Lewis as the king himself.
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Based on the final novel in Mantel’s award-winning “Wolf Hall” trilogy, which follows the rise and fall of Cromwell, the new images come some 18 months after Mantel’s sudden death at the age of 70.
“Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, and no private army,” reads the logline. “Navigating the moral complexities that accompany the exercise of power in this brutal and bloody time, Cromwell is caught between his desire to do what is right and his instinct to survive. But in the wake of Henry VIII having executed his queen, no one is safe.”
The first two books, “Wolf Hall” and “Bringing Up the Bodies” were adapted into the 2015 series “Wolf Hall,” which encompassed the events between Anne Boleyn’s marriage to Henry and her execution three years later. Claire Foy played Boleyn.
Peter Kosminsky, who directed “Wolf Hall,” returns to direct all six episodes of “The Mirror and the Light.”
The cast is rounded out by Lilit Lesser as Princess Mary, Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Wolsey, Harriet Walter as Lady Margaret Pole, Harry Melling as Thomas Wriothesley, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Rafe Sadler, Timothy Spall as the Duke of Norfolk, Alex Jennings as Stephen Gardiner and Charlie Rowe as Gregory Cromwell.
Peter Straughan (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) adapted the book while Colin Callender’s Playground (“All Creatures Great and Small”) and Company Pictures (“Blood”) produce. Lisa Osborne is a producer while exec producers are Colin Callender and Noëlette Buckley for Playground, Kosminsky, Lucy Richer for the BBC and Susanne Simpson for Masterpiece.
Banijay Rights is distributing the series internationally.
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