Kate Winslet was once undeniably best known for her work in film going all the way back to the ‘90s and Titanic, but coming to HBO for the Mare of Easttown TV show proved that she can be as strong on the small screen as she is on the big screen. Now, she is coming back to HBO to join forces with Succession writers for a new project.
HBO has announced a series order for another new TV show starring Kate Winslet, called The Palace. The new limited series will follow the story of an authoritarian regime beginning to unravel, all told within the walls of a palace over the span of one year. The actress is attached both to star and executive produce, which was also the case for Mare of Easttown.
The project involves some talent from another critically-acclaimed HBO show, with Succession writers Will Tracy, Frank Rich, and Gary Shteyngart on board. Tracy is writer, showrunner, and executive producer for The Palace, and Rich also will work as an executive producer. Another writer, Juli Weiner, is also an HBO veteran, although as a writer for John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight rather than Succession like the others. The Queen and A Very English Scandal director Stephen Frears will direct and executive produce.
There are no details about who will join Kate Winslet in the cast of The Palace at the time of writing, but hopefully the cast will be as stacked for the new show as it was for Mare of Easttown. As well as Winslet winning at the Emmys and the Golden Globes for her starring performance as Mare Sheehan, co-stars Evan Peters and Julianne Nicholson were on the list of 2021 Emmy winners for their outstanding supporting roles.
Interestingly, The Palace isn’t the only TV project bringing Winslet back to HBO that has been announced recently. Back in late June, news broke that she will star and executive produce Trust, a limited series based on Hernan Diaz’s novel of the same name. Networks were reportedly competitively bidding to land the new project, with HBO coming out on top and recruiting the Mare of Easttown leading lady back for another series. With the announcement of The Palace, she is slated to star in her third series at the premium cable network in the span of just a few years. She did star in HBO’s Mildred Pierce miniseries, but that was back in 2011.
With Mare of Easttown, Trust, and now The Palace, Kate Winslet seems more interested than ever in spending time on the small screen, although it’s worth noting that all three are limited rather than ongoing series. She did mention that there were some “very cool ideas” about a second season of Mare of Easttown, but there has been no announcement of a renewal at the time of writing, and signing on for two different series seems like an indication that fans shouldn’t hold out for more of Mare Sheehan any time soon.
Unfortunately, the announcement for The Palace didn’t provide a timeline for when the show will start production, let alone a premiere window for when it can debut. If you want to revisit Kate Winslet’s past TV projects, you can find both Mare of Easttown and Mildred Pierce streaming with an HBO Max subscription now. Mildred Pierce isn’t quite as well-known as the more recent Mare of Easttown, but it was stellar enough to earn an honorable mention on our list of the best Kate Winslet movies! Fans will also be able to see her in the long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water in December, although the first looks at her character have already been released.
