Actor Penn Badgley has landed his next major television role following the conclusion of You, signing on to star in Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone for Prime Video.
The streaming platform has officially greenlit the murder mystery series, which adapts the 2022 bestselling novel by Australian author Benjamin Stevenson.
Badgley will play Ernest "Ern" Cunningham, a mystery novel expert who travels to Vermont for a family reunion to welcome his brother Michael upon his release from prison. The gathering is fraught with tension, as Ern was the person who originally helped authorities secure Michael's conviction.
The reunion turns dangerous when a frozen corpse is discovered while a severe snowstorm leaves everyone at the resort isolated. A sequence of deaths follows, complicated by an unsettling detail: every single member of the Cunningham family has previously killed someone, whether by accident or by deliberate choice.
Murder Mystery Role Reversal
The project marks Badgley's return to the crime television genre after five seasons playing serial killer Joe Goldberg on Netflix's hit drama You. However, the new series places the actor on the opposite side of a murder investigation.
Instead of playing a killer hiding in plain sight, Badgley will portray an investigator trying to unravel a string of murders while surrounded by relatives who are all potential suspects. His character relies on his deep understanding of crime fiction conventions as he is forced to apply those rules to his own family.
The production will blend classic murder mystery elements, dark comedy, and family drama. Amazon MGM Studios global head of television Peter Friedlander described the project as a brilliantly inventive series that subverts traditional murder mystery conventions in unexpected and entertaining ways.
Creative Team and Adaptation Details
Screenwriter David Hemingson, who earned critical acclaim for writing the Oscar-nominated feature film The Holdovers, will lead the series as showrunner and executive producer. Fifth Season and Made Up Stories are also producing the project alongside Amazon MGM Studios.
Hemingson said he was thrilled to partner with Fifth Season and Made Up Stories to bring Stevenson's heartfelt and darkly funny mystery to the screen. He added that the production team was fortunate to secure Badgley, calling him the ideal performer to convey Ern's intensity, brilliance, and dry sense of humor.
The series adapts the first book in a literary series launched by Stevenson in 2022. The book became a commercial success and has grown into a franchise featuring four published novels starring Ernest Cunningham, with Stevenson currently writing a fifth installment.
Stevenson expressed enthusiasm for the television adaptation, saying he was impressed by the vision and passion the team showed for bringing his book and main character to television. He added that Badgley perfectly captured the insight and intelligence of Ern, while commending Hemingson for injecting wit and heart into the scripts.
Production Roster and Release Status
The executive production team includes Hemingson, Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, Jeanne Snow, Molly Allen, Badgley, and Stevenson.
Producers Papandrea and Hutensky from Made Up Stories highlighted the combination of the source material and its lead actor, stating that they had found in Badgley the ideal performer to translate Stevenson's fictional universe to television.
Prime Video has not yet announced a release date or additional casting choices for the remaining members of the Cunningham family. Further production announcements are expected as casting continues.
