Hanna, the stylish 2011 action film which elevated the career of Saoirse Ronan, has been adapted as a TV series by Amazon. Interestingly enough, the series also serves as a reunion platform for two of its main players in Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos, who co-starred on the 2011-2014 AMC-later-Netflix murder-mystery series, The Killing.
The first teaser trailers are here, and you can see them below…
Hanna TV series story
Amazon’s casting of Joel Kinnaman for Hanna represented a bit of a coup, since the actor’s stock was at its highest point, coming off the release of (streaming competitor) Netflix’s sci-fi series, Altered Carbon, on which he starred. However, Kinnaman’s onscreen reunion with his former The Killing police partner, Enos, will likely be an acrimonious one, since they are depicted as mortal enemies, engaging in a deadly struggle over the daughter of Kinnaman’s character, the titular Hanna, who, on this series, is played by newcomer Esme Creed Miles.
The Hanna TV series will essentially adapt the story of director Joe Wright’s 2011 film, centring on the titular character (Ronan), a teenage girl who spent her entire life detached from civilisation, raised to be a ruthlessly efficient fighting machine in rural Finland by her father, Erik (Eric Bana), until they attract the attention of Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a relentless C.I.A. agent with a vendetta, who wants to kill Erik and covet Hanna for sinister purposes. Likewise, the Amazon series will see the character dynamic replicated in a longer serialised form.
Hanna TV series cast
Esme Creed-Miles plays Hanna. Here, Creed-Miles, whose only onscreen roles were in 2017 films Dark River, Undercliffe and Mister Lonely, tackles her first lead role. According to the description, her Hanna is “an extraordinary teenage girl who has lived all her life in a forest in Northern Poland until becoming the heart of an unraveling conspiracy. Hanna feels she must leave the confinement of the forest to experience life, but once in the world, Hanna is hunted by Marissa and others connected to Hanna’s hidden origins and exceptional abilities.”
Joel Kinnaman plays Erik, who is described as “a hardened, intuitive and uncompromising soldier and mercenary, who, for the past 15 years, has raised his daughter in the remote forests of northern Poland. Isolated from the world he once knew, he has trained Hanna in every method of survival, with his only goal, to keep her safe. But, his teenage daughter begins to seek freedom from the restricted haven he has created.”
Mireille Enos plays Marissa, who is described as “an efficient and ruthless agent who has risen up the ranks of the CIA. However, beneath her cool exterior is a deeply buried secret that continues to haunt her. The reappearance of Hanna and her father Erik threaten to expose the past she has worked to repress.”
Hanna TV series crew
While Joe Wright hasn’t returned to the director’s chair for the Hanna series, the job of heading the pilot fell to Sarah Adina Smith, who wrote/directed the 2016 Rami Malek-starring film, Buster’s Mal Heart, with TV work such as episodes of HBO’s Room 104 and TBS comedy Wrecked, as well as an episode of FX’s Legion. However, the script was in familiar hands, since David Farr, who co-wrote the 2011 film, handled writing duties here. Besides the 2011 film, Farr’s CV mostly includes television entries, notably the successful miniseries adaptation of John Le Carre’s The Night Manager, MI-5 and recently with an episode of Amazon anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams and episodes of BBC crime series McMafia. As Farr expressed of the project in a statement:
“I’m thrilled that Hanna has managed to attract a visionary director and actors of the caliber of Mireille and Joel to play our adult leads. And in Esme Creed-Miles I believe we have discovered a star of the future – she is going to be a very special Hanna. Hanna aims to be both a raw-knuckle ride and a deeply touching family drama. It has the visceral excitement of a genuine conspiracy thriller but also the simple humanity of a rites of passage drama. Hanna is in a very unusual family. She’s a very special teenager. But all teenagers think they’re abnormal. She’s just a little more abnormal than most.”
The Amazon Hanna series brandishes an array of executive producers consisting of JoAnn Alfano for NBC Universal International Studios, Andrew Woodhead for Working Title Television, Becky Clements for Tomorrow Studios, Marty Adelstein (a producer from the original film) and the duo of Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title. Additionally, Tom Coan co-exec-produces and Hugh Warren is a producer.
Hanna TV series release date
The first season will debut in March on Amazon Prime Video UK.