The Palace Star-Studded Cast, Plot Details & Everything We Know So Far

Since the early 2000s, the film industry has expressed increased interest in understanding the ins and outs of running a nation. We saw it in Aaron Sorkin’s television masterpiece The West Wing (1999-2006), which gave audiences a glimpse at the everyday dilemmas of Washington insiders who truly care about making their country a better place. More recently, we have seen comedies like Parks & Recreation that delve into the ridiculousness of local politics, and Veep (2012-2019), which explored the moral degradation of a self-obsessed but indecisive vice president. Currently, even one of Netflix’s highest-rated and most-watched TV shows is The Crown, which chronicles the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Now Kate Winslet is all set to star in The Palace, HBO’s newest prestige drama about the complicated geopolitics of a fictional European country.

TThe Palace is from the producers of Succession’s producers and The Queen’s director, Stephen Frears.

he Palace will focus on ‘the story of one year within the walls of the palace of an authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel.’ Further details about the program are being withheld from the public at this time. 

Winslet was first attached to the project last July, when the series’ development was originally publicized. 

If you’re looking for details about The Palace, which certainly looks like a potential Emmy in the making, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for everything we know so far about the miniseries.

Is There A Trailer For The Palace?

Not yet, since the show is still in production. Keep an eye on this space for all the latest footage as and when it’s released. And while you wait, check out the video below highlighting HBO Max‘s 2023 originals:

When and Where Is The Palace Releasing (And When Is It Filming)?

No official release date for The Palace has been revealed, but we can expect it to air on HBO. The streaming release of the miniseries is also almost certainly going to be on HBO Max. In February 2023, production on the series was revealed to have begun, with the show filming on set in Austria.

What Is the Plot of The Palace About?

According to The Palace‘s logline, the new series “tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of a modern European regime as it begins to unravel.”

Who’s In the Cast of The Palace?

Kate Winslet is the star of this new HBO drama. Winslet won her first Academy Award nomination in 1995 for the Jane Austen adaptation, Sense & Sensibility, and two years later she was catapulted to international fame and acclaim for her role as Rose in James Cameron’s Best Picture-winning film, Titanic. Winslet has enjoyed great success with HBO miniseries, having won her first Emmy for the titular role in Todd Haynes’ adaptation of Mildred Pierce (2011), and her second for her role in Mare of Easttown (2021), which follows a detective investigating a murder in a small town.

Matthias Schoenaerts stars alongside Winslet. Schoenaerts first came to prominence for international audiences in the Belgian thriller Bullhead and later the French romantic drama, Rust & Bone, where he starred alongside Marion Cotillard. His English language films include The Danish Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Mustang, and The Old Guard. Also starring is Guillaume Gallienne, whose most famous role in an English-language film is The French Dispatch (2021).

Andrea Riseborough, Martha Plimpton, and Hugh Grant also star. Riseborough has had roles in prominent films like Nocturnal Animals, Birdman, and The Death of Stalin. She received her first Oscar nomination in 2023 for To Leslie, a drama about a single mother and alcoholic who uses up all her prize money after winning the lottery. Plimpton began her career as a child actor working on films like Running on Empty and The Goonies. More recently, she has enjoyed success on TV with the sitcom Raising Hope, about a 23-year-old man with sole custody of his young daughter who must rely on his unconventional family to help raise the child. Hugh Grant is perhaps best known for his work in classic romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, having last worked with Kate Winslet on Sense & Sensibility. He has also worked on a variety of shows and films including the Guy Ritchie film The Gentlemen, the British miniseries A Very English Scandal, and The Undoing with Nicole Kidman.

Who Are the Creators of The Palace?

Will Tracy serves as writer, executive producer, and showrunner of The Palace. Tracy started his career as a writer on The Onion’s television show, The Onion News Network. He continued working in the comedy news setting, writing for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver from 2014 to 2017. He moved into narrative television in 2019 when he was hired to write for Succession. In 2022, he had his debut writing for a feature film, The Menu, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and Ralph Fiennes. Other writers on the show include Sarah DeLappe, Seth Reiss, Gary Shteyngart, Jen Spyra, and Juli Weiner.

The directors of The Palace are Stephen Frears and Jessica Hobbs. Frears is the Oscar-nominated director of films that are now considered classics of 1980s cinema, My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987). He made his American film debut with Dangerous Liaisons (1988), the adaptation of the famous novel set in pre-revolutionary France in which a Marquise asks her ex-lover, the Vicomte de Valmont, to seduce the saintly wife of a member of parliament. Frears received his first Academy Award nomination for The Grifters (1990) starring John Cusack, Annette Bening, and Anjelica Huston, and his second for The Queen (2006). More recently, he directed Judi Dench in Philomena (2013) as well as Victoria & Abdul (2017), and Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins (2016). Jessica Hobbs is known primarily for her work in television. She was a director on the acclaimed crime drama Broadchurch (2013-2017) starring Olivia Colman and David Tennant, as well as the Netflix series, The Crown. She won an Emmy for her direction on The Crown Season 4, Episode 10 “War”, the fourth season finale that focused on the disintegration of Diana and Charles’ marriage.

The executive producers of The Palace include Frears, Hobbs, Will Tracy, Tracey Seaward, Frank Rich, and Kate Winslet. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Discovery and distributed by HBO.

Winslet previously starred in HBO’s limited series Mare of Easttown, and she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her work on the project.

The performer is also set to appear in another limited series for the network, which will be an adaptation of Hernan Diaz’s 2022 novel Trust.