Anya Taylor-Joy’s new Netflix show is based on an incredibly dark book

Following the warm reception of The Queen’s Gambit, Anya Taylor-Joy is returning to Netflix for a brand new, deliciously dark series based on Bella Mackie’s book, How to Kill Your Family.

Taylor-Joy’s version of the book’s protagonist is the forgotten daughter of a cruel billionaire. When blood rejects you, only one course of action is left: revenge.

Emma Moran will write and executive produce Netflix’s thriller series inspired by Mackie’s satirical novel. Author Mackie will co-executive produce – the original creator being involved is usually a green flag!

The full picture of the new TV show is still being assembled. Cast announcements and more will follow soon, but we know where this train is headed thanks to the book.

Is there a How to Kill Your Family release date?

There’s no release date. Netflix announced the adaptation on August 21, 2024, and hasn’t started shooting yet.

Netflix

The big news was shared as soon as the show nabbed its leading star. Given the timing, 2025 is the earliest we can expect a premiere.

Cast

Anya Taylor-Joy will lead How to Kill Your Family as the twisty and monologing Grace. She’s the only confirmed name so far. More cast will join her as production gets closer.

Taylor-Joy previously won a SAG Award and Golden Globe for her role in The Queen’s Gambit. Her success on the streaming service and the fact she’s coming on board as an executive producer for LadyKiller Productions on this adaptation makes it clear she’s happy to be back.

“Anya is a fantastic collaborator and couldn’t be a more perfect actor to inhabit Grace – sophisticated, multilayered, dangerously funny, and desperately intuitive,” EP Woodward Gentle told Netflix.

What’s the plot?

How to Kill Your Family is about a woman called Grace who devotes herself to murdering her billionaire dad and his side of her family after he cruelly abandoned Grace and her mother.

Grace’s father, Simon Artemis, claims not to remember her mother, whom he had an affair with. Grace was the result of that extra-curricular activity.

When Grace’s mother passes away after raising her daughter without the help of a rich baby daddy, she vows to get revenge when his family dismisses her. With an inheritance to play for and bubbling rage driving her, Grace sets out to kill off Artemis and his ilk.

Moran told Netflix, “She’s the kind of complicated, dark, but utterly hilarious antihero you dream of writing. Striking that balance between camp fun and brutal violence that Bella hits so perfectly in the book is a challenge I’m so looking forward to. I’ve never had more fun on a project with such a high body count.”

How to Kill Your Family book explained

The Netflix series is based on Bella Mackie’s bestselling 2021 book of the same name.

HarperCollins

The book’s summary says it’s perfect for fans of Killing Eve. It’s easy to see why that tone applies when reading the synopsis, written from Grace’s perspective:

“I have killed several people (some brutally, others calmly) and yet I currently languish in jail for a murder I did not commit.

“When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I’m long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession.

“The public would reel. After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of 28, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing.”

Well… maybe one regret: she lands in jail for a murder she didn’t commit this time. That’s not a spoiler, by the way, it’s the set-up.

Netflix described the adaptation as “inspired by” the book, so it may not be 100% faithful.

“It’s been thrilling to watch the characters I wrote take on new life under this magnificent creative team,” the author said. “Pairing up with Sid Gentle has been joyful, and introducing me to Emma has made me supremely confident the book is in safe hands.”

Though it may change some things to better transition the story from page to TV, it sounds like the core ideas and spirit will stay intact.

Are there any trailers?

There are no How to Kill Your Family trailers. The show hasn’t begun filming yet, so we will be waiting a long time.

Although, if you’ve read the book and fancy seeing one of its chapters come to life, we did find a showreel made by actor Sara Nelson, who had fun performing scenes from Chapter 8.

How to watch

How to Kill Your Family will stream exclusively on Netflix.

It’s a Netflix Original, so it won’t be available elsewhere. Subscribers will be able to watch at no extra cost. No information about whether it’ll be a binge drop or weekly watch has been revealed, but based on similar shows (Inventing Anna, etc.), we’d bet on all episodes releasing at once.

How many episodes How to Kill Your Family will have

The series will have eight episodes and be a limited series. This number was confirmed as part of the casting announcement.

This is a typical number for mini-series. We expect the running times to be on the longer side, too. The book is 354 pages and 18 chapters long. Quick math: each episode could cover 2.25 chapters of the book.

Of course, it’s rarely that simple. When adapting for the screen, pacing and structure will ebb and flow to best suit the medium.

For more TV shows streaming soon, check out the best Netflix horror series to watch this Halloween, the best upcoming anime series on Netflix, or when Interview with the Vampire Season 2 will come to Netflix.