Touted as the follow-up to Mad Men, the Romanoffs is actually not–but it is by the same creator, Matthew Weiner, and will debut on Amazon in October. Via the Verge:
In 2016, Amazon Studios inked a $70 million deal with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner to produce The Romanoffs, an anthology show set in the modern day. At a TCA press tour event yesterday, the studio revealed a short teaser for the show, which announced that it will debut on October 12th.
The teaser shows off a background of words in Cyrillic, and reveals a slew of actors associated with the project, including Aaron Echhart, Amanda Peet, Corey Stroll, Noah Wyle, and others. Weiner will direct all eight episodes of the show.
The show will follow a group of people from around the world who believe that they’re descendants of the Romanovs, the royal Russian family that was executed by the Bolsheviks in July 1918. The remains of the family were first discovered in 1991, but two members of the family — Alexei Nikolaevich, and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna or Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna — were unaccounted for, fueling speculation for years that they might have survived the massacre, although the discovery of additional remains have since suggested that there were no survivors. That speculation has led to numerous films and television shows about the family, such as the 1986 series Peter the Great and Fox’s 1997 animated film Anastasia.
While we’re a little disappointed that it’s not actually a direct sequel to Mad Men, perhaps Mad Men already ended where it should have. Looking forward to this!