“A devastating true story”: why Sharon Horgan’s new Amanda Knox series will trigger many emotions

If you’ve become accustomed to Sharon Horgan delivering her usual dose of comedy gold (hello Catastrophe), her latest role may well surprise you. The Bad Sisters star and creator is taking on a key role in Amanda: A Coming of Age Horror, a series that will bring a devastating true story to life – and trigger many emotions along the way.

The drama will tell the familiar story of Amanda Knox (played by Grace Van Patten), a former exchange student in Italy who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher. Sharon Horgan will play Amanda's mother Edda Mellas and, over the course of eight episodes, we’ll see the tragic story play out, including Amanda's desperate bid for freedom.

Ahead of the show’s arrival on Disney+, here’s everything we know about it, including the cast, expected release date and what actually happened in real-life…

What is Amanda: A Coming of Age Horror about?

The eight-part series is a dramatisation of the true story of Amanda Knox, a US exchange student in Perugia, Italy, who was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher. Nine Perfect Strangers’ Grace Van Patten will star as Amanda, with Sharon Horgan playing her mother Edda Mellas.

The series will cover Meredith’s murder in 2007, the police investigation that followed, which resulted in Amanda’s arrest and conviction, as well as her 16-year fight for freedom. It’s not the first time the Knox case has been covered on TV. Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy was released in the US in 2011, while BBC Three and Netflix released their own documentaries in 2014 and 2016.

What happened in the real-life Amanda Knox case?

On 1st November 2007, Meredith Kercher – a British exchange student from the University of Leeds, was murdered in Italy. She was aged 21 at the time and she was found dead on the floor of her room in her Perugia apartment. She had multiple stab wounds and she’d also been sexually assaulted.

Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of Meredith's murder in 2009, and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison. Their convictions received widespread criticism, with the evidence repeatedly called into question. It would be years before they were eventually acquitted on appeal in 2015.

Rudy Guede, a known burglar, was convicted of the murder in 2008, his bloody fingerprints having been found on Meredith's possessions. He sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment, which was later reduced to 16 years. In 2021, he was freed from prison after completing 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Despite the fact that Italian police found no physical evidence that linked Amanda to Meredith’s murder in the weeks after her death, Edgardo Giobbi, the lead investigator, said: “We were able to establish guilt by closely observing the suspect's psychological and behavioural reaction during the interrogation. We don't need to rely on other kinds of investigation.”

It was a controversial case that and many argued that Amanda had been convicted on the basis of the fact that, in the eyes of prosecutors, her behaviour at the time didn’t follow what many would expect from someone whose flatmate had been murdered.

Who's starring in Amanda: A Coming of Age Horror?

View full post on Instagram

The cast of Amanda includes:

• Sharon Horgan
• Grace Van Patten
• Rebecca Wisocky
• Joe Lanza
• Crosby Fitzgerald
• John Hoogenakker
• Francesco Acquaroli
• Giuseppe De Domenico
• Roberta Mattei

How can I watch Amanda: A Coming of Age Horror?

While we don’t yet have an official release date for Amanda: A Coming of Age Horror, we’re expecting it to air later this year on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK.