Phoebe Dynevor's 'Inheritance' to Spice Up January Doldrums

Every few years, separate projects accidentally align in Hollywood in what is known in the industry as "twinning." Recent examples include 2022's pair of Pinocchio films, one from Disney and one from Netflix, and 2023's two TV series about Alexander Litvinenko, one with Benedict Cumberbatch and the other with David Tennant. There's a second variation as well, where several projects with very similar names arrive at once: The Suspect with Aidan Turner, Suspect the Face to Face remake, and Suspicion on Apple TV+, which arrived within an 18-month span. The newest version for 2025 features three projects called Inheritance: two TV series and a feature film.

The Inheritance, a Channel 5 family drama starring Robert James Collier and Samantha Bond from Downton Abbey, technically debuted in the U.K. in 2023 but arrived stateside in October 2024. The other TV series, Inheritance (no definite article), hails from Sky and stars Johnny Lee Miller and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. It was announced at the end of 2024 and will begin filming in early 2025. Though it doesn't technically have an American distributor, Sky's series tend to wind up on Peacock, and the high-profile stars almost guarantee it will find a home somewhere.

Then there's the feature film Inheritance (also sans definite article), which stars Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor and is arriving via IFC Films, one of AMC Networks' little federation of niche platforms, after a theatrical release. However, it appears that the feature film will be the most forgettable of the three, as its theatrical release is set for January 24, 2025, one week after the Oscar nominations are announced, when everyone is busy watching the nominees. It's one of the few remaining spots on the calendar where studios dump their most embarrassing duds, and it's a very bad sign for the spy thriller.