Kit Harington Stars in New Adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities

MGM+ and the BBC have released the first trailer for a new four-part television adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, with Kit Harington taking on the lead role of Sydney Carton. Scheduled to premiere on MGM+ on 6 September 2026, the four-episode miniseries brings the French Revolution to the screen once again, placing the former Game of Thrones actor right at the centre of Dickens’ sprawling story of sacrifice and political turmoil.

Harington stars alongside French actor François Civil, who takes on the role of Charles Darnay, and Mirren Mack as Lucie Manette. Written by Daniel West and directed by Richard Clark, the drama is being produced by Federation Stories, Federation Studio France, and Thriker Films. While the marketing plays heavily on Harington returning to historical drama after years in Westeros, this is a brand new role for him, stepping into the shoes of Dickens’ weary, disillusioned lawyer.

Bringing Dickens back to television

The newly released trailer opens with the famous line from the novel:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

From there, the footage leans heavily into the contrast between the quiet streets of London and the bloody chaos of revolutionary Paris. It is a familiar backdrop for period drama fans, but the scale shown in the trailer suggests a real push to lean into the thriller elements of the source material.

Speaking about the core pitch of the series, Harington and screenwriter Daniel West previously described the book in direct terms:

“A Tale of Two Cities is the original historical blockbuster – a heartbreaking romance and a brutal revenge mystery…”

If you are new to the series or the original text, Dickens’ novel follows Lucie Manette, her long-imprisoned father Alexandre, and the two men who love her: Darnay, a French aristocrat trying to escape his family’s cruel legacy, and Carton, an unfulfilled English lawyer with a self-destructive streak. When the Revolution erupts in France, the trio find themselves pulled into the dangerous political crossfire of the Reign of Terror.

Casting Sydney Carton

I think this casting is going to be the main talking point for a lot of viewers, and honestly, I am intrigued to see how Harington handles Carton. Carton is a tricky character to get right on screen. He needs to carry a deep, quiet cynicism without losing the audience’s sympathy before his pivotal moment in the final act. We know Harington can handle heavy brooding in a historical setting, but Carton requires a very specific kind of tragic charm that is quite different from Jon Snow.

Pairing him with François Civil as Darnay is a smart choice on paper. Darnay can easily feel a bit passive in adaptations compared to the sharper edges of Carton, so having an established French actor in the role ought to give the central dynamic between the double-gangers a bit more weight. It is always a risk taking on a book that has been adapted as many times as this one, but when television gets classic literature right, it really lands. You only have to look at our list of adaptations better than the book to see how much room there is for screenwriters to reshape classic texts for a modern audience.

For Harington, this marks another high-profile television project following his time on fantasy mega-hits. While fans are always keeping an eye out for news regarding Warner Bros developing Game of Thrones feature film projects, taking on classic 19th-century literature feels like a solid, grounded move for his current career path.

With the four-part miniseries set to land on MGM+ on 6 September 2026, viewers will not have to wait too long to see whether this new take on Dickens’ bloody, romantic epic lives up to its initial promise.