Agatha Christie’s mysteries are becoming Amazon TV series

Amazon will produce multiple TV series based on Agatha Christie’s murder mystery novels, starting with Ordeal By Innocence.

Get ready for mystery and murder! Amazon’s growing streaming platform is expanding its offerings with multiple TV adaptations of Agatha Christie’s works. The “Queen of Crime” and best-selling author of all time, Agatha Christie specialized in baffling murder mysteries.

The first of these series in development is Ordeal By Innocence, a “wrong man” murder mystery. Produced in the UK, the series will star Bill Nighy, Alice Eve, and Ed Westwick.

Ordeal By Innocence is part of Amazon’s plan to produce their own original programming that can compete with fellow streaming platforms Netflix and Hulu. Other popular Amazon original series include dystopian The Man in the High Castle, and Emmy Award-winning Transparent.

Agatha Christie’s works are no strangers to adaptation. For example, the fourth adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express will be released later this year. But do we really need or want more adaptations?

Cinematic universes are everywhere. Some good, some dreadful, all expensive. Whatever your feelings toward them, not only are they not going anywhere, but they seem to be spreading to television. Series upon series upon series. Game of Thrones is one thing (well, four things), but Agatha Christie?

“We think [the Agatha Christie series] will attract great auteurs and actors to create compelling content for audiences everywhere,” Chris Rice of WME said in a statement.

But critics have argued that Hollywood’s new “cinematic universe” strategy is inhibiting creativity and originality, and the last thing we want is for television to follow in film’s decadent footsteps. No one knows what these new adaptations will be like. Perhaps we will get diverse and original artists interpreting Agatha Christie’s famous novels with a fresh take.

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But if Amazon is willing to invest a bunch of money into these adaptations, let’s pray that this means they’ve got a winner in the works.