MGM+ Greenlights The American Heiress, Starring Julianna Margulies

MGM+ has greenlit The American Heiress, an eight-episode romantic comedy of manners based on Daisy Goodwin’s 2011 New York Times bestselling novel, with Julianna Margulies starring as Isabella Cash. Deadline and Variety reported the commission on Wednesday, 11 November 2026. Goodwin, the British writer who created Victoria for ITV and PBS Masterpiece, is adapting the […]

MGM+ has greenlit The American Heiress, an eight-episode romantic comedy of manners based on Daisy Goodwin’s 2011 New York Times bestselling novel, with Julianna Margulies starring as Isabella Cash.

Deadline and Variety reported the commission on Wednesday, 11 November 2026. Goodwin, the British writer who created Victoria for ITV and PBS Masterpiece, is adapting the book and will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Production begins in the United Kingdom this month.

The Series and Its Lead

Margulies, the Emmy-winning star of ER and The Good Wife, who next appears in Paradise, plays Mrs Cash, the formidable American mother who, in 1893, takes her daughter Cora to England in search of “the one thing she can’t buy at home, a title.” She is also an executive producer.

“The American Heiress is a seductive mix of captivating characters, old world class politics, and romantic ambition. Daisy Goodwin is a master at crafting entertaining and smart stories full of fascinating people and high stakes, and this show is Daisy at her best. Having Julianna Margulies lead this amazing cast with her unique strength, intelligence and charm is ideal.”

— Michael Wright, global head of MGM+

About the Novel

The American Heiress, also published as My Last Duchess, follows Cora Cash, a “dollar princess” who believes she is in love with Teddy, an American artist. After a hunting accident she wakes at Lulworth Castle, the seat of the 12th Duke of Wareham, and her certainties come undone in the “naughty nineties” of Victorian England. Her mother, Isabella, meets her match in the Double Duchess, “a woman who goes through dukedoms like kid gloves.”

Readers who like a sharp social climb will find a kindred spirit in Sophie Irwin’s A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting.

From the Showrunner

Goodwin executive produces with Stacey Snider, FilmNation Entertainment’s chief creative officer, alongside Damian Keogh, Stella Merz and Kirstie Macdonald. Joanna Crow is the series producer and Gemma Wright a co-producer. Catherine Morshead, Sandra Goldbacher and Edward Hall will direct.

“The American Heiress is a story about mothers and daughters, old society obligation and new world entitlement, and the search for meaning in a world distorted by money. I hope it will make viewers laugh, think, and swoon.”

— Daisy Goodwin, writer and showrunner

Where It Will Play

The series will premiere on MGM+ in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Latin America, with Fifth Season handling global distribution. No premiere date has been announced.

As a romantic comedy of manners set across America’s Gilded Age and England’s Victorian era, it sits close in period to The Gilded Age and in the same marriage-market tradition as Bridgerton. For readers who follow book-to-screen adaptations, the draw is a showrunner adapting her own bestselling novel, with cameras due to roll in Britain this month.

Bottom Line

An eight-part series, a writer in charge of her own material, and a lead already in place: The American Heiress is on its way from the page to MGM+.