Inside ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Secret, Tragic Journey to the Screen

Netflix’s new limited series The Queen’s Gambit tells the story of chess prodigy Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she battles trauma, grief, self-doubt, and most importantly, addiction on her way to the top. Often darkly comic, the series is nevertheless steeped in tragedy. Beth is abandoned by both the living and the dead. The only constant she can lean on is the cold mathematical order found within the black and white world of a chess board.

However, The Queen’s Gambit isn’t just a show about tragedy. The series itself has faced a long, dark, almost cursed journey to the screen. Between the death of the source material’s author, years of broken deals, and one famous Hollywood tragedy, the fact that The Queen’s Gambit is on Netflix today is something of a miracle. Especially considering the miniseries is so damn good.

The Queen’s Gambit is based on a 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis. Tevis was also the writer behind the books The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth, both of which had already been adapted into popular films. The Queen’s Gambit became an instant hit for Tevis and has long been heralded as one of the best books about chess ever written.

Naturally, there was a huge amount of interest in adapting The Queen’s Gambit in the 1980s, but the rights fell into dispute after Tevis’s own untimely death in 1984. Tevis’s passing put Hollywood’s adaptation of the work on hold for literally decades. Acclaimed directors like Bernardo Bertolucci and Michael Apted circled the project in the 1990s, but both passed on the project. The would-be first-time director who came the closest to filming The Queen’s Gambit? None other than Heath Ledger.

Prior to his tragic death in 2008, Heath Ledger was working with screenwriter Allan Schiach on a planned film adaptation of the novel. It was going to be Ledger’s feature film directorial debut. Ellen Page was even lined up to star as sullen chess prodigy Beth Harmon. Filming was supposed to start in late 2008, but Ledger passed away in January of that year. Thus, once more putting an adaptation of Tevis’s beloved novel on hold.

Enter Scott Frank, the writer/director/producer behind Netflix’s Godless and the screenplays for Get Shorty, Logan, Minority Report, and more. Frank teamed up with Schiach on this latest attempt at bringing Tevis’s work to life. Instead of a film, they expanded the story to the seven-part miniseries due to land on Netflix tomorrow, October 23.

For fans of Tevis’s novel, Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit is worth the wait. Visually stunning, the miniseries lures you into Beth’s strange world like a grandmaster teases out a rival player’s protected queen for the capture. Am I a chess expert? No. Yet The Queen’s Gambit makes the cerebral game feel like a violent sparring match. Every match Beth partakes in is riveting. Every sorrow she feels cuts you to the quick. Every victory feels like your favorite sports team winning the biggest match of the year.

The Queen’s Gambit is an achingly beautiful miniseries featuring a brilliant star turn from Anya Taylor-Joy. As Beth, she is twitchy, broken, and unstoppable. She is an ingenue with the genius of a grandmaster. She is everything fans of Tevis’s book are looking for in a Beth Harmon and more.

Maybe it’s taken The Queen’s Gambit a long time to make it to the screen. But from the tragedies holding the adaptation back, Scott Frank and company have produced a triumph.

Where to stream The Queen's Gambit