Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things has cast newcomer Tanzyn Crawford and The Wilds’ Sarah Pidgeon as series regulars alongside Kathryn Hahn and Quentin Plair, Deadline has reported. Also, Rachel Lee Goldenberg has been tapped to direct the first two episodes of the series that is created and written by Liz Tigelaar.
The half-hour series adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling book will follow Claire (Hahn) who reluctantly becomes an anonymous advice columnist when her own life starts falling apart. Pidgeon will portray a younger version of Claire, who is rebellious and sharp-tongued and acts irresponsibly after her mother’s death. But manages to have a maternal relationship with her younger brother, Lucas. Newcomer Crawford is set to portray Rae Kincade, Claire and Danny’s (Plair) queer teenage daughter who is a witness to her parent’s marital crisis. Often torn between them, she has an artistic leaning though she’s uncomfortable in her own skin and is an introvert. The series will be told in multiple timelines as we follow Claire’s story to understand that we are not beyond rescue and that it’s our stories that will ultimately save us.
Pidgeon has entries like Gotham (2014), and One Dollar (2018) to her credit but is perhaps well known for playing Leah Rilke, on Amazon Prime’s now-canceled series The Wilds (2020). The series follows a group of teenage girls who are stranded on an island after their plane crash. As the group tries to survive the wilderness and each other they unravel the secret that the plane crash was no accident and rather, they were subjects of a social experiment. Pidgeon, as Leah, gave a power-pack performance of a teenager’s transition from a loner from Berkley to a courageous survivor on the island. While Season 1 got good reviews from fans and critics, Season 2, which introduced a group of boys too stranded on the island, was criticized for taking away the focus from the female-centric story. Originally developed as a four-season arc the series was cut short by the streamer for reasons unknown.
Private Life star Hahn has been taking her shots in the superhero genre recently with characters like Agatha Harkness in Marvel’s WandaVision and voicing Doc Ock in the animated, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. She has also been a mainstay of the Hotel Transylvania franchise as the voice of Ericka Van Helsing. Goldenberg recently directed the pilot and additional episodes for HBO Max’s comedy series Minx.
No release date has been set for Tiny Beautiful Things yet. Meanwhile, check out our interview with Pidgeon and Reign Edwards below: