Patricia Arquette will lead a new Hulu series about the Murdaugh family murders. The Murdaugh family is a well-known family in the Lowcountry region of South Caroline, who held political power for generations. The family has been at the center of several crimes, which have been explored through documentaries and the Murdaugh Murders Podcast (now named True Sunlight), which quickly rose to popularity when it debuted in 2021.
According to the show’s description, the series will center on Arquette’s character “Maggie and Alex Murdaugh’s stranger-than-fiction family drama, a riveting account drawing from countless hours of reporting by Mandy Matney – journalist and creator of the popular ‘Murdaugh Murders Podcast’ – as well as exclusive, insider knowledge from years spent following the case.”
Arquette’s character, Maggie Murdaugh, was the wife of Alex Murdaugh, once a prominent South Carolina attorney who was recently convicted of murdering Maggie and their son, Paul. Alex is currently serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole. For several decades, he also participated in several other crimes, including fraud, embezzlement, and drug offenses, where often abused his power and privilege.
The show’s development, per Variety, dates back to 2022, but Arquette’s participation has propelled production forward, and it is now officially ordered to series. The series, which is currently untitled, is co-created by Michael D. Fuller and Erin Lee Carr; the two also serve as executive producers alongside Nick Antosca and Alex Hedlund under their Eat the Cat banner and Matney. Fuller will serve as showrunner.
A Rewatch of Patricia Arquette’s The Act May be in Order
The forthcoming series marks the second collaboration between Arquette, Eat the Cat, Universal Studio Group’s UCP (the studio producing the series), and Hulu, following the award-winning The Act, which focused on the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Arquette earned an Emmy and Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Gypsy’s mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.
True crime series continue to grow in popularity, and the upcoming Murdaugh family series will join a number of critically lauded scripted projects on Hulu, including the Amanda Seyfried-led The Dropout, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith starring Andrew Garfield, The Girl from Plainville, Under the Bridge, and, of course, Arquette’s The Act. The compelling series, which also starred Joey King as Gypsy Rose, followed the events leading up to Dee Dee’s murder. Given that Gypsy Rose is now out of prison, in love with her own child on the way, and has an ever-growing following on social media, it might be time to give the 2019 series a rewatch. Especially since we’ll have some time until we can binge Arquette’s Murdaugh family series.
Arquette is an acclaimed actress who rose to fame with 1993’s True Romance. She later appeared in films including Ed Wood, Lost Highway, and Boyhood. In episodic work, she’s garnered praise for her work on titles including Medium, Escape at Dannemora, The Act, and Severance. Along with the untitled Murdaugh Project, Arquette is set to star in Kenneth Branagh’s The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde, alongside Jodie Comer, and They Will Kill You, opposite Zazie Beetz.
