Madonna might be appearing on the small screen soon. The iconic singer will be at the center of a Netflix limited series about her life and music, according to a new Deadline report. Netflix did not confirm the project to IndieWire.
Per Deadline, Madonna will executive produce alongside “Stranger Things” EP Shawn Levy, whose 21 Laps banner has an exclusive TV overall deal at Netflix. Madonna is repped by CAA, Maverick Management, Untitled Entertainment, and Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. Levy and 21 Laps are repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
As Deadline noted, the slated series is not affiliated with the long-gestating film biopic about the “Like a Virgin” icon; that film was previously in development at Universal with Emmy winner Julia Garner set to portray Madonna as of June 2022.
Yet, Deadline cited the rumor that despite the project being separate from the feature, Garner could still be cast in the lead, especially since Garner has appeared alongside Madonna on social media as of late, plus has a long-running relationship at Netflix after starring in “Ozark” and “Inventing Anna.” She also will be executive producing and starring in a Netflix series about FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, with Garner portraying his girlfriend and business associate Caroline Ellison.
Garner teased to Entertainment Tonight in 2023 that, despite the Madonna film being shelved by Universal, it was not the end of her involvement in an iteration of a Madonna biopic. “I don’t want to tell too much,” Garner said to Entertainment Tonight. “I’m going to keep things … fingers crossed.”
Per a prior THR report, Garner endured “up to 11-hour-a-day choreography sessions” with Madonna’s personal choreographer, followed by choreography sessions with the singer herself to land the role. The untitled film was going to culminate with Madonna’s 1990 Blonde Ambition tour and would require multiple dancing and singing sequences. Madonna worked with Diablo Cody and playwright Erin Cressida Wilson on the script.
Madonna admitted that co-writing the script was like “hacking off my limbs” before the film was de facto canceled. “I’ve had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film,” Madonna said in July 2022. “It was also a preemptive strike because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men. So I put my foot in the door and said, ‘No one’s going to tell my story, but me.’”
