Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell play a game of thrones in Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light trailer

Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light is based on the last novel in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell series.

By Emma Keates  |  October 30, 2024 | 2:36pm
Photo: Masterpiece on PBS
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Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell play a game of thrones in Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light trailer
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House Of The Dragon probably won’t fly back onto our screens until some time in 2026, but there are plenty of other throne-squabbling series to whet your palette until Team Black and Team Green do it all over again in season three. Instead of waiting for Alicent and Rhaenyra to resume their machinations, why not watch some of their real-life counterparts, Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, do the same?

Masterpiece on PBS just released the first trailer for Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light, which serves as a follow up to 2015 miniseries Wolf Hall. The initial series was based on the first two books in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy—Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up The Bodies (2012)—and the upcoming series is an adaptation of the final novel, The Mirror & The Light, which was released in 2020. 

Wolf Hall follows cunning lawyer Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power through the ranks of Henry VIII’s court. The new limited series picks up right after the execution of Anne Boelyn. If you remember from grade school (or the musical Six), that means Jane Seymour—the short-lived queen who actually gave Henry the son he so desired—is next. But while the King celebrates the birth, the rest of the country descends further into chaos. “Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, and no private army. Navigating the moral complexities that accompany the exercise of power in this brutal and bloody time, Cromwell is caught between his desire to do what is right and his instinct to survive. But in the wake of Henry VIII having executed his queen, no one is safe,” reads a synopsis.

Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis will be reprising their roles from the 2015 series as Cromwell and Henry VIII respectively. (Lewis looks exactly like the old portraits in this new trailer.) Also returning are Jonathan Pryce (Cardinal Wolsey), Kate Phillips (Jane Seymour), Lilit Lesser (Princess Mary), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Rafe Sadler), Joss Porter (Richard Cromwell), James Larkin (Master Treasurer Fitzwilliam), Richard Dillane (the Duke of Suffolk), Will Keen (Archbishop Cranmer), and Hannah Steele (Mary Shelton). They’ll be joined this time around by Harriet Walter, Timothy Spall, Alex Jennings, Stephen Gardiner, and more.

Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light premieres March 23, 2025.

 
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