Don’t you even think about telling this casting news to fuck off. Succession star and backless-sweater icon Sarah Snook will be starring in a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, a period drama filled with romantic trials and tribulations that served as Austen’s final novel. THR reports that Snook will be portraying protagonist Anne Elliot, who, several years after rejecting the proposal of an alluring (but, sadly, dirt poor) naval commander, has to grapple with the hunk returning home from war as a decorated captain with a burgeoning bank account — and he’s also very single. “As Anne ponders missed opportunities,†the adaptation teases, “she must consider her own regrets and unwavering, possibly unrequited love.†It’s almost too easy to cast Austen-adaptation legend and Waystar Royco executive Matthew Macfadyen as Snook’s love interest, but will that stop us anyway? Absolutely not. Please do this.
Update, January 27, 2021: Persuasion has found its Wentworth in Game of Thrones’ Joel Fry. We look forward to watching him and Snook’s Anne trade longing glances and witty repartee in period costume. Jessica Swale is writing the adapted screenplay and Mahalia Belo has signed on to direct.