Good news for book lovers and fans of period dramas – All the Light We Cannot See, a highly-anticipated adaptation, is arriving on TV later this year. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anthony Doerr, the new limited series is set in France during the Second World War. The story follows Marie-Laure Blanc, a blind teenage girl who moves from Paris to Saint-Malo alongside her father during the invasion of the city by Nazi Germany.
The novel also follows a German boy of the same age, Werner Pfennig, who is forced to fight for the Nazi regime before meeting Marie-Laure. The book is split between the narratives of the two lovers and their relationship in the lead-up to the battle of Saint-Malo in 1944.
All upcoming series episodes are directed by Shawn Levy, known for the Night at the Museum franchise, as well as directing Free Guy and producing Stranger Things. Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders and the Academy Award-nominated film Spencer, writes the adaptation.
All the Light We Cannot See will be released on Nov. 2, 2023. All four episodes of the limited series will be released for streaming simultaneously.
The series has some pretty big names attached to its cast. Mark Ruffalo stars as Daniel LeBlanc, the father of Marie-Laure, who flees Paris to his uncle’s residence alongside his daughter. Hugh Laurie plays Etienne LeBlanc, Marie-Laure’s great uncle, who suffers from shell shock from his experiences in the First World War.
Marie-Laure will be played by Aria Mia Loberti, a newcomer who is also blind in real life, like her character. Her casting was part of a global search by the series’ production crew to find an actor who could represent blind and low-vision people. Loberti is a Fulbright scholar, disability advocate, and Ph.D. student at Penn State University outside of acting, and All the Light We Cannot See is her first role. Louis Hofmann, a German actor known for the Netflix series Dark, will portray her love interest.
All the Light We Cannot See will be available to stream globally on Netflix on Nov. 2, 2023. The series will be available to stream for all subscribers and new users can watch the series through a free trial.