At a glance…
- Netflix has unveiled its upcoming adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Age of Innocence, joining a growing wave of literary classics returning to our screens.
- The romantic period drama stars Camila Morrone, Kristine Frøseth and Ben Radcliffe, with Australian actress Belinda Bromilow and director Shannon Murphy also involved.
- But why do we keep revisiting these stories? The Weekly speaks with the creatives behind Little House on the Prairie, My Brilliant Career and Sense & Sensibility about reimagining literary classics for a new generation.
Another week, another adaptation of a beloved literary classic. And lately, it seems American literature is having something of a renaissance on our screens.
From John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, starring Florence Pugh, to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie, featuring Australian actor Luke Bracey, American literary classics are finding new life on Netflix. Closer to home, Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career, fronted by Philippa Northeast, is also getting the adaptation treatment.
Now, Netflix is turning its attention to another American classic: Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.
But why are we revisiting so many of these stories? And what can a new adaptation offer that previous versions haven’t? When I recently spoke with Little House on the Prairie showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine about bringing the beloved books to a modern audience, she offered an interesting perspective.
“Anytime you adapt something, you’re creating something new; you’re creating a conversation between 2026 and 1869, and also the time that it was written, the 1930s,” she told The Weekly. “All those things converge… It’s perspectives from now, perspectives from then mixing. It’s going to hit a different point and create something new.”
With Little House, Rebecca aimed to both honour the original books and expand on the story so that the experiences of the Osage people and Black Americans were also depicted.
“At this time in history, we have the opportunity to tell probably a more fully realised story of who really lived on the prairie,” she explained. Whether we will see that expanded perspective in The Age of Innocence, we shall have to wait and see.
Whether we’ll see a similarly expanded perspective in The Age of Innocence remains to be seen. But with East of Eden also exploring its characters from fresh perspectives, including a deeper examination of Cathy Ames, there’s reason to be curious about what this latest adaptation might bring to Edith Wharton’s novel.
For the uninitiated, The Age of Innocence is a Pulitzer Prize-winning romantic tragedy about forbidden love and social expectations, written by American author Edith Wharton.
Published in 1920, the novel is set in the 1870s, during America’s Gilded Age, when New York’s wealthy elite lived by a strict set of social conventions.
The story follows Newland Archer, a wealthy young lawyer engaged to May Welland, a beautiful, conventional young woman from a respectable family. Their marriage promises everything society expects: wealth, status, stability and a comfortable future.
But that all changes when May’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns to New York after leaving her unhappy marriage. Ellen is independent, unconventional and largely uninterested in following the rigid rules of polite society. Her separation from her husband causes a scandal, but she captivates Newland, who begins questioning whether the life he’s expected to lead is actually one he wants.
“The story is about the choice between following your heart or staying with duty and convention,” says showrunner, writer and executive producer Emma Frost.
And while the novel was published more than a century ago, its exploration of marriage, women’s independence and the pressure to conform still feels remarkably contemporary. In a way, Ellen is a similar character to Sybylla in My Brilliant Career, most recently brought to life by Philippa Northeast.
“To me it was so incredibly exciting because I think this character was so complex,” Philippa told me of her role in My Brilliant Career. “ “I think the courage of this particular character, 145 years ago, at a time where women had no rights, they had… no identity, they had no standing in society, they had no ability to be able to forge their own path; yet this was a young 18-year-old, full of spirit, full of life, saying I want to live life my own way and I’m naive, I’m new to the world, I’m inexperienced, I’m going to try everything until I find a way in which to do it on my own terms.”
Two very different women, living in very different worlds, but united by a determination to live life on their own terms. In many ways, both Ellen and Sybylla feel like modern women born ahead of their times. In fact, Edith Wharton was herself looking backwards when she wrote the novel, examining the society of her childhood from the perspective of a changing world. More than a century later, we’re still finding new ways to interpret it.
So, if you’re a fan of romantic yearning, people pushing back against society’s expectations, or the exploration of marriage found in Jane Austen’s novels (or even more recent films like Wicker), The Age of Innocence might be the story for you.
Camila Morrone, whom you may recognise from Daisy Jones & The Six, stars as the unconventional Countess Ellen Olenska. Kristine Frøseth, who appeared in The Buccaneers, plays May Welland, while Ben Radcliffe, known for Masters of the Air and Anatomy of a Scandal, takes on the role of Newland Archer.
“Ben Radcliffe was a revelation as Newland. Cami is fearless as a performer,” Emma says. “Kristine made May effervescent and open, innocent, and hopeful.”
Hayley Mills, Margo Martindale, Fiona Glascott, Emma Shipp and Australian actress Belinda Bromilow are among the New York high society crowd. Find the full cast list here.
And there’s another Australian connection behind the camera. Acclaimed Aussie director Shannon Murphy, best known for Babyteeth and her work on Dying for Sex, is directing the first three episodes and serving as an executive producer.
This isn’t the first time Edith Wharton’s novel has been brought to the screen.
The Age of Innocence was adapted as a silent film in 1924 and again in 1934, with Irene Dunne portraying Countess Ellen Olenska.
However, its most famous adaptation was the 1993 film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland Archer, Michelle Pfeiffer as Countess Ellen Olenska and Winona Ryder as May Welland.
The critically acclaimed film earned five Academy Award nominations, winning Best Costume Design. Winona Ryder also took home a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, while Miriam Margolyes won a BAFTA for her portrayal of Mrs Manson-M’Ingott. This new Netflix adaptation will be a series, but that itself offers a new opportunity to either expand the novel or deepen its themes.
Arguably, that’s part of the enduring appeal of these literary classics. Every generation gets the opportunity to revisit familiar characters, question their choices and see their stories through a different lens. It’s something Australian screenwriter Diana Reid told The Weekly when discussing her adaptation of Sense & Sensibility starring Daisy Edgar-Jones.
“This is not the definitive Sense & Sensibility; this is just our Sense & Sensibility and someone else will have another one in ten years, or maybe in five minutes,” she said.
“And I think that that is how we know that classics are classics. Because we can always find something new to say about them, and each generation can get its own.”
The Age of Innocence premieres on Netflix on 18 February 2027.
