Netflix’s Thriller Hitmaker Officially Wants ‘Mare of Easttown’ Star For a Future Adaptation [Exclusive]

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Published Sep 30, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio.

Of all the many people impacting the current streaming landscape, few have proven as popular and successful as Harlan Coben. The acclaimed author's multi-year collaboration with Netflix began in 2018, and the mystery drama Safe was the first of the many adaptations that followed. The series, which followed a paediatric surgeon and widowed father who desperately searches for his missing daughter, starred Michael C. Hall of Dexter fame, who would be the first of many big-name stars to sign up to a Coben-Netflix collaboration.

In 2026, Coben released two hugely successful adaptations on Netflix, both featuring several eye-catching names. Run Away, based on Coben's 2019 novel of the same name, boasted plenty of beloved British stars, including James Nesbitt, Academy Award nominee Minnie Driver, and Gavin and Stacey's Ruth Jones. Then came the second adaptation of the year, the enormously popular I Will Find You, based on the Edgar Award-winner's 2023 novel. For this, Avatar's Sam Worthington and Severance's Britt Lower were brought on board to lead, with their popularity helping shoot I Will Find You into the streaming stratosphere.

With a trophy cabinet of famous faces filling up for Coben, who is next on the agenda? In an interview with Collider's Jake Hodges ahead of the second season of Harlan Coben's Final Twist, the bestselling author admitted who, of all the potential candidates, he would most love to see in one of his adaptations. "I’ve always wanted to work with Kate Winslet. I think that would be somebody I’d love to have," he said. "She’s one of my favorite actresses. I’m a big fan of hers. If I had to pick somebody, I’d pick Kate Winslet." The Academy Award-winning star of Titanic featuring in a Coben series is a major possibility, considering just how lucrative his adaptations have been.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun

Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner.

🧢Dustin(Stranger Things)

🗼Emily(Emily in Paris)

🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday)

🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game)

FIND YOUR BEST FRIEND →

How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it.

AWe got loud about the same obsession and never stopped. BThey invited me somewhere before we had properly met. CWe bonded over disliking exactly the same thing. DThey noticed I was struggling and stayed with me.

NEXT QUESTION →

What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours.

AA ridiculous plan neither of us should attempt. BSomewhere new, photographed heavily, ending very late. CSomewhere quiet, few people, zero small talk. DSomething simple, and a conversation that actually matters.

NEXT QUESTION →

You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it.

AThey are already putting their shoes on. BThey answer instantly and turn it into a plan. CThey answer and say something unflattering and true. DThey listen for an hour and never check the time.

NEXT QUESTION →

What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected.

ASupport first. We can review the mistake later. BA relentlessly positive reframe of the entire disaster. CThe blunt version. Do not soften it for me. DPatience, and no judgment about how I got here.

NEXT QUESTION →

What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are.

AI am all in, always, about everything. BI can turn almost any situation into a good time. CI say the thing nobody else in the room will. DI look after whoever is having the worst day.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks.

ALoudly, briefly, then back to normal by Tuesday. BThey apologise first, enthusiastically, with a gift. CCold silence, then one dry joke that fixes everything. DWe talk until we both understand what actually happened.

NEXT QUESTION →

What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap.

ATo make my life bigger than it would be alone. BTo push me out of the house and into my own life. CTo catch me when I start lying to myself. DTo be the person who never gave up on me.

NEXT QUESTION →

Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get.

AWe would still drop everything for each other, instantly. BWe still make plans, and we still actually go. CWe still cut through each other's nonsense in one sentence. DThey stood by me once when it cost them something.

REVEAL MY BEST FRIEND →

The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…

Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your life would be like.

Dustin Henderson

You do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he. What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the plan.

Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense, enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind.
You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous, and they last for decades because of it.
He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously, which is far rarer than it sounds.
You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet.

Emily Cooper

You are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she. Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with yourselves.

Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion, which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy levels.
You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when something was happening somewhere else.
She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly, publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts.
She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very good photo.

Wednesday Addams

You have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this list.

Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for an enormous amount.
You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally incapable of offering you anything else.
Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a performance out of caring.
Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you.

Seong Gi-hun

You look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend.

Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself.
You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long after anybody would blame you for leaving.
He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes back and tries again, which is more than most manage.
He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'I Will Find You' Broke Into Rare Streaming Territory

I Will Find You is one of Netflix's biggest hits of the year, which is no mean feat considering its competition includes returning seasons of Bridgerton and The Gentlemen. But the show's most impressive streaming feat is becoming one of Netflix's top ten most-watched English original scripted shows of all time. I Will Find You had to dethrone another 2026 surprise hit in the process: Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson's thriller His & Hers.

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