Netflix has now officially greenlighted the drama series Feral, setting three for lead roles opposite Baby Reindeer‘s Jessica Gunning: Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), Genevieve O’Reilly (Andor) and Quintessa Swindell (Prime Target).
The show, from creator Jude Mack, has also newly cast Dolly de Leon (Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed).
Dockery will play Julia, with O’Reilly as Silvana, Swindless as Suzy, and De Leon as Elena. We announced Gunning’s casting as Annie in September. Production is due to begin in Australia this year.
Based on the 1987 novel Savages by Shirley Conran, Feral follows four very different women who accompany their mining executive husbands on a corporate holiday to a beautiful but lethal tropical island. When the men’s shady deals land them all in danger, the women must learn to survive the jungle — and each other. The question is, can they put aside their differences, self-doubts and vanities to stay alive?
Mack wrote the seven-episode series and exec produces alongside its director, Emma Freeman, as well as Liza Marshall and Bria Thomas for Hera Pictures, Hamish Lewis and David Belshaw for Warner Bros. International Television Production. Laurie Borg is series producer.
Billing Feral as “a wild, messy journey of self-discovery,” Mack said, “It’s a complete dream to be carrying Shirley Conran’s torch alongside Hera and Netflix. I can’t wait for people to meet these funny, brutal, bold women. I’m obsessed with them and hope audiences will be too.”
Hera Pictures’ founder, Marshall, added: “We’re delighted to be working with the incredibly talented Jude Mack to bring Shirley Conran’s best-selling novel to the screen. The extraordinary female characters at the heart of the show will be pushed to extremes, behave deliciously badly and have a whole lot of fun along the way. Emma Freeman is the perfect director to take us on the ride, and Netflix have wholeheartedly embraced the scale and ambition of the show.”
A Golden Globe and four-time Emmy nominee, Dockery is best known for starring in the upstairs/downstairs drama Downton Abbey and the associated films. She’s also been seen on shows like Godless, Defending Jacob and Anatomy of a Scandal, with additional film credits including The Gentlemen and Flight Risk. The English actress is repped by United Agents, WME, Anonymous Content, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
O’Reilly is an Irish actress known for her role of Mon Mothma across multiple Star Wars titles, including the recent Disney+ series Andor. Also recently seen starring in Netflix’s early 20th century drama My Brilliant Career, she is repped by RGM Artists, United Agents, Authentic Talent and Literary Management, and Glaser Weil Fink.
This year, Swindell has appeared in the films One Night Only and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. The New York native’s other credits include the series Prime Target, In Treatment and Trinkets, plus Black Adam, and Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener. Upcoming, they’ll be seen in Neon’s 4 X 4: The Event and A24’s Deep Cuts. They are repped by Gersh, Black Bear, and Myman Greenspan Fox.
English (US) ·