Kit Harington helped bring to life the towering fantasy novels of George R.R. Martin with HBO’s Game of Thrones, and now, he’s about to tackle the work of another literary giant. This summer will mark the premiere of the latest adaptation of Charles Dickens‘ classic A Tale of Two Cities at the BBC and MGM+, casting the Emmy nominee opposite As Above, So Below star François Civil as lookalikes Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. A brilliant but erratic young barrister and a French gentleman put on trial for treason, respectively, they find their fates constantly intertwined despite their differences in a timeless tale of love, triumph, and tragedy. We’re thrilled to include the new four-part series as part of Collider’s Exclusive Summer Preview series for upcoming film and television projects, and can share two new images ahead of the premiere.
A Tale of Two Citiesunfolds in 1728 London, where tensions have reached a boiling point amid the war between France and Great Britain. At the center of it all is Lucie (Mirren Mack), who receives a life-changing message from Paris revealing that her long-presumed-dead father may actually be alive. Her only hope of tracking him down lies with the messenger, Darnay, whose life hangs in the balance after being arrested. To save him, Lucie recruits Carton to defend him in court in hopes that Darnay will lead her to the City of Love. Their union sparks an intense love triangle as both men fight for Lucie, in turn forging their own inescapable connection.
Our exclusive still shows how this story begins, with a wide-eyed Lucie holding the letter that tells of her father’s fate. It drives home the shock of the moment and how important it is to her to find the truth and, hopefully, reconnect with her long-lost parent if he is indeed still alive. The scene also pops with a bit of color, teasing a take on the classic novel that will be as visually engaging as its story. On the flip side, Harington’s Carton looks the part of the depressed alcoholic depicted in Dickens’ tale, seated with a drink and a wistful gaze up from his glass. Despite his appearance, he’ll be key to Lucie’s hopes and, in turn, she may be the exact influence he needs to become a better person. Although he’ll always be known as Jon Snow, Harington brings a wealth of experience from Industry to Pompeii and Apple TV’s Extrapolations to bring this layered character to life through the best of times and the worst of times.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Is Far From the First Adaptation of the Dickens Classic
It’s been a minute since someone attempted to recreate Dickens’ legendary novel for the screen. There have been over a dozen adaptations of A Tale of Two Cities between television and film, including the Academy Award-nominated 1935 version starring Donald Woods and Ronald Colman as Darnay and Carton, respectively, and fittingly produced by MGM. Daniel West wrote and created the new miniseries in a reunion with Harington, who previously led West’s three-part HBO historical drama Gunpowder. I May Destroy You‘s Simon Meyers produced the project, while Outlander‘s Richard Clark directed. Joining Harington, Civil, and Mack on-screen are Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Yannick Renier, Roxane Duran, and Guillaume Gallienne.
A Tale of Two Cities debuts on MGM+ later this year. Additionally, the miniseries will air on the BBC in the U.K. Check out our exclusive images above and stay tuned here at Collider for more exciting new looks at the hottest upcoming shows and films from our summer preview event.
