In Lulu Wang’s limited series, Nicole Kidman Survives An Unexpected Family Tragic Event

“I just need time to myself sometimes. Where I am not someone’s mother or wife. Where tragedy does not define me.”

Nicole Kidman’s Margaret opens the first teaser for Expats, a six-part limited series on Prime Video directed by Lulu Wang and based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s best-selling book The Expatriates.

The series will debut on January 26 and stars Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee, and Jack Huston, in addition to others.

The story of Expats, which is set against the colorful and turbulent backdrop of 2014 Hong Kong, revolves around three American women named Margaret (Kidman), Hilary (Blue), and Mercy (Yoo), whose lives come together following an unexpected family tragedy. 

The show examines privilege and what happens when victimhood and culpability are difficult to distinguish from one another. Huston portrays Hilary’s husband David, and Tee plays Margaret’s husband Clarke.

Wang wrote, directed, and created content for Expats. Along with Per Saari of Blossom Films (Rabbit Hole, Nine Perfect Strangers), Kidman serves as an executive producer for the series. The first writer to be brought on board for the project was Alice Bell (The Beautiful Lie). 

Executive producers are Stan Wlodkowski (The Old Guard) and Theresa Park for Per Capita Productions (After Yang). Writers on Expats with Bell and Wang included Gursimran Sandhu (Game of Thrones), Vera Miao (Two Sentence Horror), and Lee.

The creator of the series, Wang, said in 2020 that Kidman approached her about working on the project.

“I was incredibly grateful,” Wang said. “It was pretty early, in the summer, right after [‘The Farewell’] had been released. She saw the film and loved it. You are the first person to read the scripts for this book we optioned and are adapting, she said. I see no other director doing this but you. You have to do it.’”

Wang joined the project in 2019 after Prime Video gave the adaptation the go-ahead in 2018. In 2022, she signed a television contract with Prime Video under her Local Time production banner.

According to Wang, the six-episode miniseries had an unusual production schedule that spanned “500 days.”

The number does refer to the extraordinarily drawn-out production process that the team had to go through, even though it was probably mentioned in Jest’s Instagram post.

Production on “Expats” was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in December 2022. 

Wang wrote in the Instagram post’s caption, “It is hard to believe we have finally wrapped EXPATS after starting production in August 2021 (lovingly referred to as 500 Days of Expats).” “Every obstacle thrown at us has been overcome, including lockdowns, injuries, and Covid shutdowns, but we persevered. As we get ready to premiere this 6.5-hour series, I will gradually get around to thanking everyone and sharing all of their stories.”

Beginning on January 26, the first two episodes of the series air on Prime Video every week until the finale on February 23. The feature-length penultimate episode of “Expats” screened at the 2023 TIFF.

The suspenseful teaser teases a horrific kid-related mishap and delves into the contrast between Hong Kong’s colorful background and the character’s internal conflicts.

The six-episode limited series, which is based on Janice Y. K. Lee’s 2016 novel “The Expatriates,” centers on an international community in Hong Kong whose lives are irrevocably linked after an unexpected family tragedy.

Margaret, portrayed by Kidman, is a woman who relocated her entire family to Hong Kong. Blue portrays Hilary, a driven professional whose friendship with Margaret is shattered by circumstance.

Yoo plays Mercy, a carefree New Yorker who just graduated from college and gets mixed up in the expat community in Hong Kong.

In addition, Jack Huston will play Hilary’s husband, David, and Brian Tee will play Margaret’s husband, Clarke.

“Expats” has been the focus of intense controversy throughout production, ranging from criticism over the show’s location and filming in Hong Kong despite ongoing political unrest to the Hong Kong government releasing Nicole Kidman from their strict quarantine.

Additionally, Kidman reportedly left the set early, according to Hong Kong media, a claim that Amazon Studios refuted.