‘Never Let Me Go’ Drama Lands FX/Hulu Series Order

FX has greenlit a series based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel Never Let Me Go.

The drama, which will stream on Hulu in the United States, comes from writer and showrunner Melissa Iqbal (HBO’s The Nevers) and counts filmmaker Alex Garland — who wrote the script for a 2010 feature based on the novel — as an executive producer. Viola Prettejohn, Tracey Ullman and Kelly Macdonald head the cast.

DNA Productions will produce the series along with FX Productions and Searchlight Television; DNA and Searchlight were behind the 2010 film as well. Iqbal will executive produce with Marc Munden, who directed the pilot; Garland; Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich and Maria Fleischer of DNA Productions; and Ishiguro. Garland and DNA previously collaborated with FX and Hulu on the limited series Devs.

“Never Let Me Go is a modern science fiction classic that Melissa Iqbal and the creative team have brilliantly adapted for FX as a drama exploring timely and unsettling themes on life and the ethics of technology,” said FX Entertainment president Gina Balian in a statement. “We are honored to partner with Andrew and Allon at DNA Productions, Searchlight Television, Alex Garland, Marc Munden, Kazuo Ishiguro and the incredible cast on this exciting new project.”

Prettejohn (The Nevers) will star as Thora, a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from the boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society. As she starts living undercover in the outside world, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will spark a revolution and test the boundaries of what it means to be human. 

Along with Ullman (Mrs. America, Into the Woods) and Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire), the cast also includes Aiysha Hart (We Are Lady Parts), Spike Fearn (Tell Me Everything), Shaniqua Okwok (It’s a Sin), Gary Beadle (Andor), Kwami Odoom (Death in Paradise), Susan Brown (Game of Thrones), Keira Chanse (The Capture) and Edward Holcroft (the Kingsman franchise).

Never Let Me Go will run on Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ under the Star banner in other territories, in addition to Hulu in the U.S.

Prettejohn is repped by Insight Management & Production and CAA; Ullman by Hamilton Hodell and CAA; Kelly Macdonald by ICM Partners and Independent Talent Group; Hart by Curtis Brown and Goodman Genow; Fearn by Hamilton Hodell; Okwok by Tavistock Wood; Beadle by Lou Coulson Associates and Link Entertainment; Odoom by United Agents; Brown by Hamilton Hodell; Chanse by Hero Talent Group; and Holcroft by Independent Talent.