Invitation To A Bonfire is an upcoming six-episode series from AMC, marking Tatiana Maslany’s return to the network after her performance in Orphan Black. The psychological thriller is based on a best-selling novel and includes stars from the MCU, Game of Thrones, Law & Order, and more. The series is part of AMC’s larger movement to develop new, original content exclusive to their streaming service.

Invitation To A Bonfire is part of a larger scripts-to-series model that will launch on the network and AMC+ in 2023. The model requires writers’ rooms to develop original series, stories, concepts, and even simple, general premises for shows. If successful, the scripts are granted a series order by the network and/or its streaming service. In doing this, AMC will forgo the traditional “pilot season” or “pilot episode.”

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Invitation To A Bonfire will be one of the first original features to debut under AMC’s new model, alongside fellow AMC-original Demascus. Because the scripts-to-series model emphasizes quality content independent of viewership, Invitation To A Bonfire will have untethered creative liberty to tell its unique story. Here’s everything we know.

Invitation To A Bonfire: The Plot

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The upcoming AMC show is based on a novel of the same name by Adrienne Celt and later cinematically adapted by Rachel Caris Love. Invitation To A Bonfire follows the staff of an all-girls boarding school in 1930s New Jersey. Zoya (Freya Mavor) is a young Russian immigrant and employee at the school where Leo (Pilou Asbeak) and his wife (Tatiana Maslany) have recently been hired. Freya enters into a toxic, lethal love triangle with Leo, all while the girls within the school navigate the complex social hierarchy within 1930s American society.

The story of the AMC adaptation is likely to follow the novel’s synopsis, which reads:

Invitation To A Bonfire: The Cast & Crew

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Invitation To A Bonfire stars Jamie Neumann (Lovecraft Country), Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk, Orphan Black, Perry Mason), Amy Darton (Sleeping Beauty), Ngozi Anyanwu (Deuce, Deadbeat), Freya Mavor (The Emperor of Paris, The Sense of an Ending, HBO’s Industry), Pilou Asbaek (Borgan, Game of Thrones).

Cherien Dabis (Only Murders In The Building, Ozark, Ramy) will direct the first two episodes of the six-episode season and serve as an executive producer. Robin Schwartz, Kyle Laursen, Tatiana Maslany, and Carolyn Daucher will serve as executive producers.

Release Date

Invitation To A Bonfire is set to debut in 2023.

Everything Else We Know

Part of Invitation To A Bonfire was filmed in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in late October 2022. Set designers transformed many business storefronts to convey the 1930s setting, adorning modern-day buildings with signage and era-appropriate lighting and removing signifiers of the digital age. The historic downtown and many historically-preserved sites of New Bedford were also used throughout production.

When historic sites couldn’t be used, modern-day properties served as substitutes. The boarding school – the central setting of the series – was instead filmed in an 1855 Grand Italianate known as “The Whalehouse.” The American novelist and poet Herman Melville once owned the American Renaissance-era property before its eventual sale to Laura Parrish. It currently serves as a popular New Bedford vacation rental. Despite its historic roots predating the book’s setting, the elaborate, expansive property lends itself to the 1930s setting with a few creative liberties from crew members.

In an article from The Boston Globe, Parrish explained her experience during filming and why The Whalehouse is a perfect fit for shows like Invitation To A Bonfire.

A key component for filming this period-piece series is WHALE–the Waterfront Historic Area LeaguE. The organization is at the forefront of preserving and maintaining the historic downtown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. WHALE began in 1962, initially moving buildings out of the way of the Route 18 construction path. In an article from The Standard-Times, development manager Georgia McDonald explained the organization’s role in the area and filming production.

“It has this beautiful solarium. There’s a moment in the book [that features a greenhouse]. So I think that went into their choice… I think a lot of people feel this way when they own an old house - you imagine what it would look like back in the day. So it was incredible to watch the house a-flurry with people that looked like they were from the 1920s and 1930s.”

Invitation To A Bonfire was filmed at numerous sites that WHALE saved from demolition. From the building facades to the cobblestone roads, Invitation To a Bonfire has utilized the history that Massachusetts whaling cities have worked so hard to preserve.

“Most of the beautiful downtown buildings were saved by WHALE: the Zeiterion Theater, the Candleworks building, the Double Bank building, the Seamen’s Bethel, the MAriners Home and the Corson Building…”