The Devil in the White City Series Still in the Works Following Hulu’s Exit

The Devil in the White City series isn’t dead yet.

In February 2019, it was announced that Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese were executive producing a series for Hulu based on Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America novel.

In March 2023, however, it was reported that the Disney-owned streamer had decided to exit the project. The news came after Keanu Reeves and director Todd Field left the series in 2022.

Jeremy Allen White, Jude Law, and director Matt Ross were also in talks to board the project before Hulu dropped out.

Speaking with Deadline, producer Stacey Sher revealed that she’s “still involved” with the project.

When asked if that means fans can expect to see The Devil in the White City series sometime soon, Sher said, “I mean, I hope so. It’s not imminent, but it is not ever far from my mind.” She also confirmed that DiCaprio and Scorsese, along with Rick Yorn and Jen Davisson, are still involved with the series.

What is The Devil in the White City about?

“Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century,” a description of the novel reads. “The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.”

Brandon Schreur

Brandon Schreur has been writing about comics, movies, television shows, and all things pop culture for roughly five years. He's a lifelong cinephile who spends way, way too much money buying Blu-rays and trade paperbacks. You can find him on twitter at @brandonschreur.