Romance Movies

Is ‘Hamnet’ Based on Shakespeare’s Life? Everything We Know About the Paul Mescal Adaptation

RIP Shakespeare, you would have loved Paul Mescal.

In 2020, Maggie O’Farrell published a fictionalized retelling of William Shakespeare‘s marriage, named after his son, Hamnet. Told from the perspective of Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife, who is often referred to as Anne Hathaway (not that one), Hamnet tells the story of the young couple’s grieving family after the loss of their only son.

After Hamnet‘s release, the Shakespeare-inspired book was quickly optioned for a film adaptation, which is now set for a cozy autumnal release in late 2025. With stars like Mescal and Jessie Buckley at the helm, we already know that this Elizabethan book-to-screen adaptation will be one for the ages!

Scroll to find out everything we know about Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, including the story’s connection to Hamnet’s real life, when the film will be released, who has been cast, and more!

Is Hamnet based on a true story?

Yes, Hamnet was inspired by the real life of William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, who is referred to as Agnes in the film. Over the course of their marriage from 1582 to 1616, Shakespeare and Hathaway had three children: their firstborn, Susanna, and their twins, Judith and Hamnet. At age 11, (spoiler alert!) young Hamnet died of unknown causes, which O’Farrell chalks up to the plague.

Many historians assume that the couple’s relationship fell victim to their insurmountable grief, causing a rift between them from which they could never recover. Famously, this resulted in Shakespeare only mentioning Hathaway once in his will, as the recipient of his “second-best bed.”

Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features

O’Farrell distinguishes her novel from the true story by never introducing Agnes’s husband by name. However, the novel certainly draws on the Bard’s real marriage and the grief of losing his son, which many believe is documented in the ironically titled play, Hamlet. Aside from the clear similarities between the two names, Hamnet and Hamlet are derived from the same word, meaning “home,” with -net as a male suffix and -let as a suffix meaning small or young, giving the name a Peter Pan effect, as if to say Hamnet never grew up.

Since Hamlet‘s debut was about five years after young Hamnet’s death, scholars have often believed that the play’s story of a depressed son fighting to avenge the life of his late father was a direct inverse of Shakespeare’s own feelings about the loss of his son. Some even take the comparison to the next level, arguing that writing the play gave the Bard a sense of wish fulfilment, as if he used the entire story as a way to scream into the void, “Why couldn’t it have been me instead?”

While many believe that we know how Shakespeare coped with the loss of his son, O’Farrell’s novel recenters the tragedy around Agnes and the children, letting readers know how they reacted to the loss of their son and (twin) brother.

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What is the release date for Hamnet?

Hamnet is set to release in theaters on November 27, 2025. This premiere falls on the same day as Wicked: For Good, setting up the perfect Barbenheimer-inspired double feature, Hamnet: For Good. The film will also debut at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, before the film’s U.S. premiere. Internationally, the film is set to hit theaters on December 12.

Who has been cast in Hamnet?

Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features

Hamnet is set to star Irish actress and singer Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare, and Irish actor Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare. Buckley is best known for her role as Young Woman in I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and, of course, Mescal has been making us swoon since his TV debut in Normal People. Rounding out the cast is Joe Alwyn (Conversations with Friends) as Agnes’ brother, Bartholomew, Emily Watson (Chernobyl) as Mary Shakespeare, and Jacobi Jupe (Peter Pan & Wendy) as Hamnet.

Is there a trailer for Hamnet?

Yes, the trailer for Hamnet dropped on August 26,. In the trailer, viewers got their first taste of the “untold love story” that “inspired Shakespeare’s greatest masterpiece.” In the trailer, both Mescal and Jupe can be heard asking, “What do you see?” Buckley answers with a heartbreakingly shaky voice, “You will live.”

Hamnet, In Theaters, November 27