Apple TV+ is sending Tobias Menzies on a Manhunt.
Based on James Swanson’s 2007 novel Manhunt: The 12-Day Search for Lincoln’s Killer, this new limited series will star Menzies as Edwin Stanton, a friend and war secretary of Abraham Lincoln who was “driven nearly to madness by the need to catch [John Wilkes Booth] and to carry out Lincoln’s legacy.”
“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,” per the official logline. “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.”
Menzies is best known for playing Prince Phillip on Netflix’s The Crown, a role which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award in 2021; Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall on Starz’s Outlander; Edmure Tully on HBO’s Game of Thrones; and Brutus on HBO’s Rome.
Produced by Apple Studios and co-produced by Lionsgate, the limited series is created by Monica Beletsky (Fargo, The Leftovers), who will also serve as showrunner and will executive-produce alongside director Carl Franklin (Mindhunter). Additional EPs include Swanson, Layne Eskridge, Michael Rotenberg and Richard Abate for 3 Arts Entertainment, and Frank Smith and Naia Cucukov for Walden Media.
