A First Look at Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (2024)

FINALLY! We get a first glimpse of the sequel to Wolf Hall (2015), damn near a decade in the waiting. Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (2024) is set to premier sometime later this year in the U.K., and Masterpiece/BBC have finally dropped us a whole bunch of images of the forthcoming production so there’s plenty to discuss!

Mark Rylance returns as Thomas Cromwell, the mastermind of Henry VIII’s divorce from the Catholic Church and the ousting (and subsequent execution) of his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

Compare him to the portrait of Cromwell by Holbein, painted in 1533.

Kate Phillips is once again Jane Seymour, now married to Henry and Queen of England. And get a load of that gown!

It’s a recreation of Holbein’s portrait of Jane Seymour, painted c. 1536, when the series takes place.

Lilit Lesser plays Princess Mary. Can I just say how THRILLED I am with the gable hoods in this show so far??? They’re correctly proportioned!

Harriet Walter plays Lady Margaret Pole, in another excellent gable hood.

The ermine on her hood and sleeves is a nod to this portrait of a woman formerly identified as Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury.

Damian Lewis also reprises his role as Henry VIII, aka the only living actor who should ever be allowed to play Henry VIII ever. This scene appears to be a masque, which explains the vaguely Turkish look to his hat and robes.

Timothy Spall as the Duke of Norfolk (L), and Alex Jennings as Stephen Gardiner (R). Gardiner is likely going to continue to be a pain in the ass to Cromwell, given their notorious and life-long rivalry.

And rounding out the cast preview, we have Charlie Rowe as Gregory Cromwell, Thomas’ son. Love that pale robin’s egg blue brocade! They’ve seriously stepped up their game on the textiles in this series!

Stay tuned for more updates of the most hotly anticipated Tudor miniseries of 2024! Share your excitement in the comments!

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11 thoughts on “A First Look at Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (2024)”

Just finished listening to the book. Looking forward to this series. And yes, the only Henry VIII should ever be Damian Lewis!

EFMD says:

April 4, 2024 at 1:52 pm

HERESY! The late, great Mr Keith Michell deserves better than to have his memory traduced so.

On a less serious note, it’s been great fun watching HENRY VIII AND HIS SIX WIVES and THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII while trying to decide which of the cast members from these productions would have been fared best in a time-travelling adaptation of WOLF HALL…

I just saw a post instagram, which said along the lines.

“Finally Harriet Walter is in a proper Gable hood” and shows this picture and her in “The Spanish Princess” 😆😆

Someone who agrees with me re: Damien Lewis

And I absolutely cannot get over the recreation of Jane Seymour’ gown!

Looks like someone got a bigger budget!! I’m so excited, PBS had better release it this year!

I’m so excited for this. Gorgeous costumes. Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis back — it’s going to be so good.

Damn good recreation of Jane’s portrait! Princess/Lady Mary looks appropriately sad! I’m all the way in! I’ll be reading The Passionate Tudor by Alison Weir, it’s about the life of Princess/Lady Mary, Henry’s daughter with Catherine!

It feels surreal to see the actors essaying the same roles after a DECADE, and looking just as- probably more grand in the historical finery. Excited to see the depiction of Anne of Cleves if they go for the German garb, considering the show’s designers are so familiar with Tudor english attires now

I agree – the only person I think of as Henry VIII is Damian Lewis.

And my eyes got huge with happiness at the picture the great Harriet Walters as Margaret Pole because she’s holding a slate frame in her hand. I do a lot of needlework and this is something that is never depicted correctly.