Right now, Anya Taylor-Joy is riding high off of the long-awaited release of her superhero film, “The New Mutants.” After years of delay, the film is finally arriving in theaters and she is most likely thrilled to at least have it off her back. And now, she can look forward to the fall release of her new Netflix series, “The Queen’s Gambit.”
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As seen in the new teaser, “The Queen’s Gambit” tells the story of a young girl in the 1950s that discovers she has an unusually high aptitude for chess. Unfortunately, she also has an unusually high demand for painkillers, as well. As you might imagine, the combination of both leads to an interesting story of an orphaned girl trying to prove her worth as a competitive chess player while also battling her inner demons.
Joining Anya Taylor-Joy in the cast are Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Moses Ingram, Harry Melling, and Bill Camp. The series comes from the mind of Scott Frank, who is probably best known for his work on the seriously underrated drama, “Godless.” For “The Queen’s Gambit,” Frank serves as co-creator, producer, writer, director, and showrunner. Quite a few hats, indeed.
“The Queen’s Gambit” arrives on Netflix on October 23. You can watch the first teaser below.
Here’s the synopsis:
Based on the novel by Walter Tevis, the Netflix limited series drama The Queen’s Gambit is a coming-of-age story that explores the true cost of genius. Abandoned and entrusted to a Kentucky orphanage in the late 1950s, a young Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) discovers an astonishing talent for chess while developing an addiction to tranquilizers provided by the state as a sedative for the children. Haunted by her personal demons and fueled by a cocktail of narcotics and obsession, Beth transforms into an impressively skilled and glamorous outcast while determined to conquer the traditional boundaries established in the male-dominated world of competitive chess.
