It’s the start of 2022, and Apple TV+ has a lot of content that’s going to launch on the service throughout the next 11 months. However, Apple can’t slow down. As a result, we’re going to keep hearing about new shows and films and documentaries, especially in an effort to keep up with the competition.
Apple TV+ has announced today that it has secured a brand new true crime limited series that will focus on the hunt for John Wilkes Booth. The show’s called Manhunt, and it comes from Emmy, Golden Globe, PGA, and WGA-nominated writer and producer Monica Beletsky (Fargo, Friday Night Lights). It will tell the story surrounding the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and it’s based on the best-selling book written by James Swanson.
Tobias Menzies (The Crown, Game of Thrones) is set to star as Edwin Stanton, the war secretary for Lincoln who was “who was driven nearly to madness by the need to catch John Wilkes Booth and to carry out Lincoln’s legacy.”
Emmy-nominated Carl Franklin (Mindhunter) will be directing Manhunt, as well as serving as an executive producer. Meanwhile, Beletsky is serving as showrunner an an executive producer as well.
Per today’s announcement:
Part historical fiction, part conspiracy thriller, “Manhunt” will take audiences into the aftermath of the first American presidential assassination and the fight to preserve and protect the ideals that were the foundation of Lincoln’s Reconstruction plans — issues that reverberate into the present day. The series strongly features Black historical figures whose lives intertwined with the escape, manhunt and subsequent high-crimes investigation, including Mary Simms, a former slave of the doctor who treated Booth’s injury and gave him safe harbor after his crime.
This is the first of the content coming from Beletsky, who has an overall deal with Apple TV+ in place.
No trailer and nothing more to go on here, but we’ll surely know more sooner rather than later. As soon as we do, we’ll be sure to pass it along.