Everything you need to know about Netflix's new 'Persuasion' adaptation

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” Jane Austen famously wrote.

Well I don’t know about single men, but it’s certainly a truth universally acknowledged that we can’t wait for Netflix’s latest period drama, an adaptation of Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion. 

This week the streaming platform announced the release date for the hotly anticipated feature film, July 15 - just in time to fill the Bridgerton-shaped hole in our lives. 

The Netflix feature, that will remain true to their original novel, has nonetheless been adapted with a “modern, witty approach”.

At the helm of the project, is pioneering female director Carrie Cracknell, who has made a name for herself in the British theatre world, becoming the youngest Artistic Director in Britain when she took over the running of The Gate Theatre in Notting Hill, before moving on to the Royal Court and the Young Vic. She most recently directed Jake Gyllenhaal in Sea Wall/A Life on Broadway and this will be her first film work. 

Persuasion is considered by many to be Jane Austen’s most mature work and follows the story of protagonist Anne Elliot, a 27-year old unmarried woman, whose family falls on hard times and are forced to rent out their home to an Admiral and his wife.

Elliot was engaged to the wife’s brother Navy Captain Frederick Wentworth, but broke off the engagement after being “persuaded” to end the relationship. The novel begins seven years on from the engagement when Elliot and Wentworth meet again after seven years and the story follows the vicissitudes of their reunion and possibility at a second chance for love. 

The Netflix movie, which has been billed by the streaming platform as “swoonworthy, witty and romantic”, will star Hollywood heavyweights Dakota Johnson in the leading role as Anne Elliot, British actor Cosmo Jarvis as Frederick Wentworth and Henry Golding as love rival Mr Elliot.