Claire Danes is headed to Apple TV+, succeeding Keira Knightley in The Essex Serpent

Variety

Danes has found her first post-Homeland TV series. Following Knightley's exit last October due to "family reasons" amid the pandemic, Danes will succeed her in the period TV adaptation of Sarah Perry's novel of the same name. The Essex Serpent "follows newly widowed Cora (Danes) who, having being released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex, intrigued by a local superstition that a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent has returned to the area," per Variety, which calls Danes "one of the most celebrated actresses working today." Danes has won three Emmys, including two for Homeland and one for Temple Gradin.