Masterpiece's The Forsytes releases appropriately wistful new look

The family dynasties in TV’s various costume dramas are always on the brink of losing their fortunes, but their fans’ futures are much more secure. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is currently playing in theaters, but there’s still The Gilded Age, Bridgerton, The Buccaneers, and, coming soon, The Forsytes, to carry on the legacy. Audiences won’t meet the affluent Forsyte family in earnest until 2026, but Masterpiece has some brand new images of their saga—which promises to be lurid, wistful, conniving, and all the adjectives we’ve come to expect from shows featuring big hats and beautiful gowns—to bridge the gap. 

Masterpiece promises that the series, an adaptation of John Galsworthy’s 20th century Forsyte Saga novels, will become “your next period drama obsession.” The show really does seem to be checking all the required boxes. “Desire, ambition and betrayal simmer at the heart of the The Forsytes which chronicles the lives, loves, trials and triumphs of a wealthy Victorian era stockbroking family, whose generations find themselves torn between tradition and self-sacrifice versus personal happiness and the pursuit of love,” its logline reads. A previously released trailer further teases some of these schemes, swoons, and scandals, including a battle for succession, a forbidden love between an heir and a former lady’s maid, and a daughter who wishes to be permitted “a mind of my own.” 

The new images are similarly full of longing glances and wistful stares. Those gazes will be performed by Stephen Moyer, Jack Davenport, Millie Gibson, Tuppence Middleton, Joshua Orpin, Francesca Annis, Eleanor Tomlinson, and Danny Griffin. The Forsytes will open their doors sometime in 2026. In the meantime, check out Masterpiece’s fresh look below: