Connie Britton and Taylor Schilling to star in Apple TV Plus drama Dear Edward

Connie Britton is reuniting with Friday Night Lights showrunner Jason Katims for a new Apple TV+ series called Dear Edward. That’s according to Deadline, which says Britton will be joined by Taylor Schilling (who was not on Friday Night Lights, though Taylor Kitsch was) and Colin O’Brien.

The series is based on the book of the same name by Ann Napolitano, and it seems like some pretty heavy subject matter. The Edward of the title, played by O’Brien, is a 12-year-old boy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills everyone else onboard, including his immediate family. Schilling’s character is his aunt, Lacey, and Britton is one of her friends and the widow of someone who died in the crash.

Rather than just a sad show about people who are sad, Deadline says it’s about how Edward and everyone else whose life was impacted by the tragedy “try to make sense of life after the crash” while “unexpected friendships, romances, and communities are formed.” It’s apparently a “heartbreaking, life-affirming, and uplifting story about survival resilience, connection, and the examination of what makes us human.” So that’s a no on “sad” but a yes on “heartbreaking” with a splash of “life-affirming.”

Deadline says the series will run for 10 episodes, but it also says that Britton specifically has only signed a deal for one year, which seemingly implies that everyone other than her could come back for more of Dear Edward if Apple wants more of this “heartbreaking, life-affirming, and uplifting” show. The story also says that Britton was “approached early on” and that Dear Edward was in development for over a year, but her negotiations went on for so long that it didn’t get officially picked up until now.

In addition to showrunning, Katims is writing Dear Edward. Fisher Stevens will direct the first episode and serve as an executive producer as well.