The fine line between genius and madness has been explored a few times in films and TV series. Anya Taylor-Joy is the latest person to walk it, as she's starring in new Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit, which has its first trailer online.
Godless creator Scott Frank is behind the new drama, adapting Walter Tevis' novel. Abandoned and entrusted to a Kentucky orphanage in the late 1950s, a young Beth Harmon (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...
The Queen's Gambit will also feature Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Bill Camp, and, because he's apparently contracted to appear in everything Netflix releases right now, Harry Melling. The series will launch on the streaming service on 23 October.