Amazon Greenlights Penn Badgley Murder Mystery Series
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- Amazon MGM Studios greenlit a series adaptation of Benjamin Stevenson's novel "Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone" with Penn Badgley attached to star as mystery-writing expert Ern Cunningham, with Fifth Season and Made Up Stories co-producing.
- David Hemingson, an Academy Award nominee for "The Holdovers," will adapt the book and serve as showrunner and executive producer alongside Badgley, Stevenson, and Made Up Stories' Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, and Jeanne Snow.
- The series is described as darkly comedic and set in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, where Ern attends a family reunion for his brother Michael's release from prison — the same brother Ern helped convict — before a snowstorm traps everyone and the deaths begin to mount.
- The novel was originally published in Australia by Penguin Random House in 2021 and by Mariner Books in 2022, becoming a bestseller; it is the first in a five-book Ernest Cunningham series, with Stevenson currently writing the fifth installment.
- The project was previously in development at HBO in 2022 with the same producing teams (then under Endeavor Content before its rebrand to Fifth Season) but did not go forward.
- Badgley recently wrapped five seasons as serial killer Joe Goldberg on Netflix's "You" (final season aired 2025) and is also set to star in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios romcom "You Deserve Each Other" opposite Meghann Fahy.
- The Fifth Season–Made Up Stories partnership has previously yielded "Nine Perfect Strangers" (Hulu), "Anatomy of a Scandal" (Netflix), "The Good Daughter" (Peacock), and "The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart" (Prime Video).
Why it matters: Amazon lands a proven genre draw in Badgley — fresh off five seasons as TV's most-watched serial killer on Netflix's "You" — for a whodunit with built-in franchise potential across Stevenson's five-book Ernest Cunningham series, while giving Hemingson his first major showrunning gig since his "The Holdovers" screenplay earned an Oscar nomination.
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