In reality, Lady Jane Grey didn’t get a happily ever after. But in the live-action TV series adaptation of Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows’s YA novel My Lady Jane, history gets a rewrite. The eight-episode historical drama is available on streaming now on Prime Video.
My Lady Jane has been a dream in the making. According to the Lady Janies, the pseudonym used by the trio of authors, the book had been optioned for film and TV before it had even published in 2016. When nothing came to fruition, the authors “made peace” with it. And then they got a call from Gemma Burgess, the author of the Brooklyn Girl series, about an unbelievable twist of New York City fate.
“She’d been riding on the New York City subway one day and saw a girl intently reading My Lady Jane and laughing, so Gemma bought a copy and loved it,” the Lady Janies told PW in an email interview. Burgess partnered with production company Parkes and McDonald to buy rights and develop the book. In 2022, Amazon greenlit the project. “We were, of course, thrilled and excited to have our book come to life in that way, especially since it was so clear that Gemma got the book,” the Lady Janies said.
In the live-action adaptation, Emily Bader (Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin) stars as Lady Jane, Edward Bluemel (Killing Eve) is Lord Guildford Dudley, and Jordan Peters (Blue Story) is King Edward VI. Burgess acts as co-showrunner/executive producer alongside Meredith Glynn (The Boys).
“The show is so fun and it is so different,” Bader said in a statement. “To be able to work on something like that, and it being a period piece, that was all my dreams wrapped up in one.”
The show follows the trajectory of Jane, a young Tudor woman whose initial feelings about her arranged marriage change once she meets her betrothed. However, the real-life Jane Grey didn’t get quite the perfect love story; Lady Jane Grey was queen for nine days before being beheaded.
“We’re taking one of history’s most tragic heroines and we’re putting her center stage and letting her have a daring, fierce chance to have her own story.” Bader said. “She is incredibly intelligent and strong-willed, and she has this fiery determination to take control of her own destiny. She is a young woman finding her power and her voice in a world that does not expect her to really have one.”
The show is “inspired” by the historical novel, which was followed by six sequels, rather than a straight adaptation. “We were interested in recreating that world as a way to tell a very modern story about a young woman grappling with adulthood, love and power,” said Glynn in a statement. “We hope the show will appeal to an even wider audience,” Burgess said. “We wanted love, sex, high stakes, friction, and drama woven into the adult relationships.”
With the series available for streaming, the Janies said they were pleased with “how much the show captures the overall tone and humor of our book. We hope viewers come away with a sense of empowerment. In the show, and in our book, Lady Jane Grey gets to take control of her own destiny and seek out her own happily ever after. That’s so satisfying as fans of history and lovers of romantasy. The show has such great heart, and we hope it will bring a real sense of joy and fun to the viewers.”
