Hulu has given its true crime series Candy a series order, and with that comes an all-new new batch of actors. The streamer announced that Jessica Biel will replace Elisabeth Moss in the titular role as Candy Montgomery, a Texas woman who killed fellow mother and community member Betty Gore in 1980.
According to Deadline, Moss dropped out due to scheduling conflicts after the show was ordered to series, and Biel takes over both as star and executive producer through her company Iron Ocean.
The project landed at Hulu at the end of 2020, with a pilot written by co-creator Robin Veith, who will also serve as executive producer on the show. Veith created the show in tandem with Nick Antosca, who also serves as executive producer, with Michael Uppendahl serving as director for the show’s pilot. No other cast has been announced, though there are a number of important players yet to cast, including Betty Gore and her husband, Allan, as well as Montgomery’s own husband, Pat.
Candy also has some serious competition, with HBO Max ordering a series based on the very same story earlier this year. Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Love and Death is also set to tell the story of Candy Montgomery, with Biel and Olsen now competing for audiences’ attention as they both play out the gruesome story of a Texas housewife who suddenly lost her marbles after being outed in an affair.
Candy is an appropriate follow-up to Biel’s last on-screen television role, in USA’s The Sinner, for which she was nominated for an Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series. (The show was later renewed as an anthology series, though Biel did not return.) She also serves as executive producer on Freeform’s Cruel Summer, a similarly dark crime drama.
Michelle Purple is set to executive produce Candy alongside Biel through Iron Ocean, alongside Universal Content Productions, 20th Television, and Alex Hedlund, with Jim Atkinson and John Bloom serving as consulting producers. No production or release dates have been announced.