Manhunt on Apple TV Plus is based on the bestselling book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson. It's part conspiracy thriller and part historical fiction as this period drama follows the hunt for Abraham Lincoln’s killer John Wilkes Booth.
Manhunt stars The Crown’s Tobias Menzies as Lincoln’s friend and war secretary Edwin Stanton, who after the president’s assassination in April 1865, led the search for his killer. Masters of The Air star Anthony Boyle will play John Wilkes Booth, the well-known stage actor who shot the president in the head as he watched the play Our American Cousin at the Ford's Theatre in Washington DC in 1865, shortly after the American Civl War.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Apple TV+ series Manhunt…
Manhunt release date
Manhunt is a seven-part thriller that launches on Apple TV+ on Friday March 15 2024, with the first two episodes. The remaining five episodes will air weekly on Fridays until April 19 2024.
How to watch Manhunt: stream the true American historical drama online
Is there a trailer for Manhunt?
Yes Apple TV+ has released a Manhunt trailer showing all the historical action and the attempt to track down Lincoln's killer. Take a look below...
Manhunt plot
Manhunt follows the aftermath of the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the 12-day manhunt for his killer, actor John Wilkes Booth. It’s one of the best known but least understood crimes in history and the show details the determination of Lincoln’s friend and war secretary Edwin Stanton, who led the hunt to find the killer and preserve the president’s legacy.
On the evening of 14 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth slipped into the Presidential box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC and shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head as he watched a play with his wife.
in the first episode, the American Civil War has reached its end after four bloody years, when white supremacist actor Booth (Anthony Boyle) assassinates the President in the hope of inspiring the country’s Southern states to rise again. As Booth flees south towards Virginia with co-conspirator David Herold (Will Harrison), Lincoln’s close friend and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies) takes charge of the manhunt to catch the killer.
Stanton and his colleagues quickly discover that Booth was part of a much wider plot that had also unsuccessfully targeted Secretary of State William H. Seward and Vice President Andrew Johnson. Meanwhile, the drama also flashes back to Lincoln’s final days as he desperately tries to reunite a country torn apart by war.
Manhunt cast — Tobias Menzies on playing Edwin Stanton
Tobias Menzies plays war secretary Edwin Stanton. He says: "This story is a huge part of America’s history and we wanted to bring it alive as intimately as we could," explains Tobias Menzies. ‘It’s a very complicated, political story we’re telling but hopefully also a very human one. President Lincoln and Stanton had a common cause in trying to change their country and Stanton runs the investigation to track Booth down. We’re really trying to bring the thriller nature of those extraordinary few days."
Manhunt is the first major TV role for Menzies since his Emmy-winning performance as Prince Philip in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown, and he prepared for the role by working on his American accent, reading about the Civil War, and even studied Gregory Peck’s performance as Atticus Finch in movie To Kill a Mockingbird.
‘For Stanton, I was thinking of those archetypes that you see in American literature and film,’ explains Menzies, who turns 50 on 7 March. "It’s such a whirlwind story with so many different characters floating through it, so you need a moral compass."
* Tobias Menzies is best known for playing Prince Philip in seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown from 2019 to 2020. Tobias has also starred in Game of Thrones, Outlander, Casino Royale, This Way Up, The Terror, Casualty, Rome and The Night Manager.
Anthony Boyle on playing assassin John Wilkes Booth
Anthony Boyle plays John WIlkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln and changed the course of history.
"It was a 12-day manhunt – at the time the biggest in American history," says Masters of the Air and The Plot Against America star Anthony Boyle, 29. "I wasn’t good at history at school, but I’ve become obsessed with it through my work. I always want to know everything about the period the drama is set in, so I get entrenched in it. For Manhunt, I read a lot of Booth’s letters, which revealed his racist ideology and his descent into madness, and during filming I found myself riding horses and hanging out with cowboys."
* Anthony Boyle has also had roles in Ordeal by Innocence, Danny Boy, Tetris, The Plot Against America, Come Home and Derry Girls. He stars in the Apple TV Plus series Masters Of The Air in 2024.
Who else is starring in Manhunt?
Manhunt also features Legion actor Hamish Linklater who plays the iconic US president Abraham Lincoln. Patton Oswalt plays Detective Lafayette Baker, an investigator involved in the manhunt, and Greenleaf’s Lovie Simone is playing Mary Simms, a former slave of a doctor, while Matt Walsh plays Samuel Mudd, who treats Booth’s injury and gives him safe harbour after his crime.
Will Harrison (Daisy Jones and the Six), Brandon Flynn, Damian O’Hare and Glenn Morshower also star.
Behind the scenes and more on Manhunt
Manhunt is created by Emmy nominee Monica Beletsky (Fargo, The Leftovers, Friday Night Lights), who also serves as showrunner and executive producer.
It was produced by Apple Studios and co-produced by Lionsgate Television, in association with POV Entertainment, Walden Media, 3 Arts Entertainment, Dovetale Productions and Monarch Pictures. Beletsky, Franklin, Layne Eskridge, and Kate Barry executive produce.
James L Swanson, author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer also serves as executive producer alongside Michael Rotenberg, Richard Abate, Frank Smith and Naia Cucukov.
