Netflix's Most Anticipated Book Adaptation Has Had Three Directors and Still Has No Cast
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo has 759 million TikTok views and a four-year development clock. Anna Kendrick is the latest director to inherit it.
Netflix acquired The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in 2022. In the four years since, the film has gone through Leslye Headland, then Maggie Betts, and now Anna Kendrick as director. It has no announced cast, no production start date, and no release window.
The June 2026 announcement of Kendrick's attachment is the latest update on one of the most watched projects in streaming. Taylor Jenkins Reid's 2017 novel has sold 24 million copies and accumulated 759 million TikTok views. It remains, for now, a film that exists only on paper.
AT A GLANCE • Platform: Netflix • Based on: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2017) • Current director: Anna Kendrick • Screenplay: Liz Tigelaar, with revisions by Francesca Sloane • Author role: Taylor Jenkins Reid is executive producing alongside Margaret Chernin • Producers: Liza Chasin, Brad Mendelsohn, David Hinojosa • Cast: None announced • Production start: Not set • Director history: Leslye Headland (2023), Maggie Betts (2025), Anna Kendrick (2026) |
What the book is
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo follows a fictional Old Hollywood icon who agrees, after decades of silence, to tell her full life story to a young journalist named Monique Grant. Over the course of their interviews, Evelyn covers seven marriages, years of Hollywood scandals, and the professional betrayals that shaped her career. The real story, the one she has kept from everyone, is a decades-long love affair with a woman.
It was published in 2017 to a modest initial audience. Then TikTok happened. By 2021 the book was everywhere. By 2022 it was one of the most discussed novels in the English language and Netflix had the rights.
Three directors
Leslye Headland was attached in June 2023. She co-created Russian Doll with Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler and directed the film Sleeping with Other People. She left at some point after her announcement, reason not disclosed.
Maggie Betts replaced her in February 2025. Betts directed Novitiate and had a strong festival reputation. She also departed, also without explanation.
Anna Kendrick entered the picture in June 2026. Her directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, premiered at TIFF 2023. Netflix acquired it for eight figures at the market. It performed well on the platform and was critically well received.
Netflix has not commented publicly on the reasons behind either of the two previous departures.
The cast nobody has named
Jessica Chastain was fan-cast for the Evelyn Hugo role almost immediately after the Netflix deal was announced. She has publicly stated there is "zero possibility" of her taking the part.
No one else has been confirmed for either lead. Evelyn Hugo requires an actor who can play the character across several decades of Hollywood history. The journalist role, Monique Grant, is a Black woman in her late twenties whose arc is central to how the book ends. Both roles carry enormous fandom expectations and have no confirmed names attached under any of the three directors.
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What four years of development tells us
Development timelines this long are not unusual for prestige IP. What makes Evelyn Hugo different is the gap between the scale of the fandom and the pace of production. Most projects with 24 million readers and 759 million social views would have a cast announcement within two years.
The director changes suggest the challenge is not interest. Netflix clearly still wants this film. The challenge appears to be finding the right creative team to make it at the level the fandom expects. Kendrick's Woman of the Hour showed she can work with difficult material and strong female performances. Whether that translates to a period Hollywood epic is the open question.
WHAT WRITERS CAN TAKE FROM THIS • Director turnover on beloved adaptations is more common than readers notice. What matters is whether the script stays stable. The core screenplay has been in development since 2022 with the same producer team. A stable script with a new director is a very different situation from a project being rebuilt from scratch. • Fan casting on BookTok creates real commercial pressure. The Chastain situation shows how quickly reader expectations can force a public response from actors who were never officially approached. That dynamic complicates casting before a single audition happens. • Four years with no cast means this is not shooting soon. If you are tracking this adaptation, that is the timeline to hold. Development history is a more reliable signal than announcement dates. • Kendrick choosing Evelyn Hugo as her second directing project is deliberate. She could have taken any number of projects after Woman of the Hour. Material that rewards performance direction and restraint over spectacle is a specific kind of choice. |
Tracking seven marriages, three sets of creative decisions, and a cast that does not exist yet is exactly the kind of layered structural work that WriteO's Character Relationship Visualizer was built for.
Sources
Deadline — Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo Movie To Be Directed by Anna Kendrick (June 2026)
Variety — Anna Kendrick to Direct Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Movie at Netflix (June 2026)
Hollywood Reporter — Anna Kendrick to Direct The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Film Adaptation (June 2026)
Deadline — The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo Finds Director In Maggie Betts (February 2025)