Gossip Girl and Downton Abbey are two shows we never thought we’d talk about in the same sentence, but upcoming HBO series The Gilded Age is bringing the best of both into one new period drama.
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes is behind the new 10-episode series, which has already begun filming.
Set in the Gilded Age of the 1880s, where tycoons like the Vanderbilts and Hearsts came into their wealth, the show follows the fictional story of Marian Brook, an orphaned daughter of a southern general who moves to New York City to live with her aunt. Marian finds herself thrown into the live-hard play-hard world of Manhattan’s high society.
“I feel very privileged to be making The Gilded Age with HBO,” Fellowes said in a statement. “It has been a dream of mine for some time, as I am fascinated by this brutal and intensely glamorous period of America’s history. It will be about ambition, of course, and envy and hatred and, perhaps most of all, about love. I hope people will enjoy the series. I know I will enjoy making it.”
While the role of Marian Brook is yet to be cast, Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) and Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) will be reunited for the first time in 36 years since they originally shared the screen in Addams Family Values. Cynthia and Christine will play Marian’s two wealthy aunts, the van Rhijn sisters.
Other key characters include Amanda Peet (Whole Nine Yards, Something’s Gotta Give), who will star as socialite wife Bertha Russell, and her husband George Russell, who is a ruthless baron with new money. George will be played by Morgan Spector (Boardwalk Empire, Homeland).
The Gilded Age is set to air in 2020.
