EXCLUSIVE: Global music superstar Madonna has partnered with global streamer Netflix to tell her story. A limited series about her life and music is in early development at Netflix, with Madonna and Shawn Levy, whose 21 Laps has an exclusive TV overall deal at the platform, executive producing, Deadline has learned. A rep for Netflix declined comment.
The duo, who had been discussing the project for awhile, are starting from scratch: the biographical limited series is not related to the Madonna feature biopic which was previously in development at Universal with three-time Emmy winner Julia Garner as the choice to play the Queen of Pop.
It is early days of development on the TV series, so it is unclear yet which period in Madonna’s decades-spanning career it will focus on. Still, Garner has remained engaged — she famously appeared alongside Madonna on stage at the singer’s Celebration Tour in December 2023 — and I hear the Ozark star would most likely play Madonna, subject of availability as she doesn’t have a deal. (Garner would also feel right at home at Netflix where she just signed on her for her third series, an FTX limited series, following her turns on Inventing Anna and Ozark.)
It is also too early to tell whether Madonna would be involved in the writing; she co-wrote the proposed feature.
Teaming with Netflix and one of the streamer’s most prolific TV producers, Levy, who is behind such Netflix shows as mega hit Stranger Things and limited series The Perfect Couple and All the Light We Cannot See, represents a major step in bringing Madonna’s story to the screen, something she has been passionate about for years.
“I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer – a human being, trying to make her way in this world,” she said at the time of the Universal feature announcement in 2020.
Madonna had remained committed to the idea and last November hinted on Instagram that she may be pivoting from a feature biopic to a TV series about her life.
Since she dropped out of college and got on a plane for the first time in her life to pursue a career in music and dance in New York with $35 in her pocket, Michigan native Madonna has defied expectations at every turn.
Certified the best-selling female music artist in history, Madonna has sold 400 million records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
Her impact on society and pop culture have gone beyond her influence in the music industry as a revolutionary pop star who challenged sexism to redefine what it means to be a powerful woman in the field. Fearless and provocative, the “Like a Virgin” singer has been outspoken on women’s rights and sexuality, pushing boundaries and challenging societal norms, and a strong advocate of the LGBTQ community.
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.
