“I feel nothing for you. Nothing,” a heartbroken Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) says in the latest Normal People trailer. But the steamy hookups and secret meetings between herself and fellow Trinity College student Connell (Paul Mescal) suggest a romantic history rife with emotion.
Their forbidden love story is explored in a new 12-episode Hulu series, based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Sally Rooney. The show, which drops on April 29, follows Marianne and Connell’s hot-and-bothered relationship, from longing glances in small-town Ireland to their undergraduate years in Dublin.
The love between the two is complicated by differences in social class and school popularity—he poor and popular, she a wealthy outsider. But when Connell picks up his mother from her cleaning job at Marianne’s house one day, an unexpected connection forms between them. It’s a bond both are determined to keep hidden from pressures of the outside world, and as indicated in the trailer, this results in a “corrupt and sexy” relationship that may not be sustainable long-term.
Normal People is adapted by Rooney alongside writers Alice Birch (Succession) and Mark O’Rowe (Boy A). Lenny Abrahamson, the Academy Award-nominated director of Room, will direct the first six episodes of the 30-minute series and Hettie McDonald (Howards End) will helm the final six. Producers on the project include Rooney, Abrahamson, Ed Guiney (The Favourite), Andrew Lowe (The Lobster), Emma Norton (Rosie), and Anna Ferguson (No Offense).
Brits, you’re in luck—the show premieres three days early in the U.K., hitting BBC Three on April 26.