Does Hedda follow the original play? How Tessa Thompson's movie changes the source material, explored

Nia DaCosta's film adaptation, Hedda, is a bold, modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play Hedda Gabler. The film premiered on Amazon Prime Video on October 29, 2025.

The main lead is Tessa Thompson as the titular character, Hedda, the manipulative and ambitious daughter of a General, newly trapped in a loveless marriage to the academic George Tesman (Tom Bateman). The plot follows Hedda’s desperate struggle for power and freedom as her financial stability depends on her husband securing a prestigious professorship.

DaCosta's film differs significantly from the source material by applying a contemporary queer lens and addressing race. The most notable change is the gender-swap of Hedda's former rival, Eilert Lövborg, to the female Eileen Lovborg. The film is also set in mid-20th-century England (rather than 19th-century Norway).

---

How Nia DaCosta's Hedda is different to that of its source material

DaCosta fundamentally changes the historical environment, moving the action from late 19th-century Christiania (Oslo), Norway, to a lavish 1950s estate in England. This shift from the late Victorian era to the post-World War II period places the narrative within the rigid expectations of mid-century domestic life, a social structure as restricting to women as Ibsen’s original world.

Notably, DaCosta casts Tessa Thompson as the lead, making Hedda a Black woman in a predominantly white high-society academic circle. Hedda’s desperation to maintain wealth and power is now also explicitly tied to the struggle against racial discrimination and the inherent vulnerability of being a woman of color navigating a privileged, restrictive world; a complexity absent from the original Caucasian character.

The film’s most notable structural change is the gender-swap of Hedda’s intellectual rival and former romantic obsession. Ibsen’s Eilert Løvborg, a male scholar and past flame, becomes Eileen Lovborg (Nina Hoss), reframing their relationship through a queer lens. In the original play, Hedda’s bond with Eilert lies in a shared rebellious spirit and a mutual yearning for freedom.

In an interview with BBC, director DaCosta stated:

"She's someone who really wants everyone's animals to come out. And she's someone who is, without maybe really knowing it, a wonderer, a questioner. She questions everything. The way she does that is quite violent and destructive."

---

Hedda Gabler play by Henrik Ibsen which inspired Prime Video's latest drama

A still from the film (Image via Prime Video)

Henrik Ibsen’s iconic play, Hedda Gabler, premiered on January 31, 1891, at the Residenztheater in Munich, Germany. The main character is Hedda Gabler, the daughter of a celebrated General, who has recently married the kind but dull academic George Tesman.

The play is a deep psychological drama primarily explored through the lens of Hedda’s profound boredom and her desperate need for control and freedom within the constraints of her new life. Returning from a disappointing honeymoon to a house they cannot afford, Hedda finds herself trapped by societal expectations, a loveless marriage, and impending debt.

The plot unfolds with the arrival of her former lover, Eilert Lövborg, a brilliant but self-destructive writer. Hedda is captivated by his freedom and his new manuscript, his "child", co-written with her rival, Mrs Elvsted (Thea). Driven by envy and a desire to control fate, Hedda manipulates Lövborg into drinking and losing his manuscript.

She then burned the manuscript herself, symbolically "murdering" his genius. Her final attempt to influence Lövborg’s suicide into a "beautiful death" fails, leaving her exposed to the cynical Judge Brack. Facing blackmail and a life of total submission, Hedda shoots herself, choosing a final, dramatic act of control over a life of submission.

---

Stay tuned for more updates.

Edited by Suchita Patnaha