Hannah Dodd Takes First Lead Film Role in Lucas Jones Drama

By Tom Whitfield

Hannah Dodd has landed her first lead film role in Miss You Forever, Zara Drake, a romantic drama that Variety reports will shoot in the U.K. and U.S. in spring 2027.

The British actress is best known for Francesca in Netflix’s hit Regency-era period drama Bridgerton. She also appears in Enola Holmes 2 and Anatomy of a Scandal. For her first lead film role, she joins actor and poet Lucas Jones, who wrote, directs and produces the project in his feature directorial debut and stars alongside her.

The announcement says the film explores love and trauma. It centers on Zara Drake, a woman at the peak of her ascent to adoration and notoriety. One year after falling in love with Isaac Owens, frontman of a soon-to-be washed-up band, Zara appears to have disappeared from the face of the planet.

The film’s synopsis sets out its terms: “Set in a timeless age between New York City and the tree-lined streets of England, ‘Miss You Forever, Zara Drake,’ explores the dichotomy of a love fuelled by resounding generational trauma and empty success. Built on the iconography and heritage of the 90s fashion scene, two lost souls fight to outrun their trauma.”

That description offers mood and motifs, not a precise period or shooting plan. The “timeless age” and the reference to 90s fashion may coexist within the story’s design, but the announcement does not explain the chronology or say how much filming will take place in each country. Spring 2027 is the only firm production date given.

Jones’s creative team, as listed in the announcement, includes:

• Jones and Eli Banfield serving as producers for Maryland Films.
• Richard Holmes as executive producer.
• Brendan Harvey as cinematographer.
• Sindri Már Sigfússon and Kjartan Holm as composers, with original music by Ava Lily.
• Des Hamilton handling casting, with additional casting by Lauren Bayly.

The same announcement traces Dodd’s career from her television debut. She made her TV debut in the Hulu series Find Me in Paris, followed by Harlots. She later played Sandra, the illusionary adult form of Sprite, in Chloe Zhao’s MCU feature Eternals.

In 2022, Dodd starred as the younger version of Sienna Miller’s character in the Netflix miniseries Anatomy of a Scandal. Her 2022 credits also included the Netflix feature Enola Holmes 2 and the Lifetime miniseries Flowers in the Attic: The Origin.

That year also brought Dodd the part of Francesca in the third season of Shondaland-produced Bridgerton, after she was announced as Ruby Stokes’s replacement. The announcement describes Francesca as the quietest and most introverted member of the Bridgerton family.

What does the lead role change for Hannah Dodd?

Practically, it puts her at the center of a film whose plot follows Zara’s fame, romance and disappearance. It also pairs her with a director who is also the male lead, writer and producer, concentrating the project’s authorship in Jones’s hands.

That marks a step beyond the television, ensemble and franchise credits listed in the announcement. But the announcement does not identify another cast member, explain how Dodd joined, or specify the film’s financing, budget, distributor and release date.

Jones’s route to the project has both screen and literary roots. The Londoner has appeared in the recent TV rom-com Break Clause, the series Get Millie Black and the feature We Work for the Dead.

Outside acting, the announcement describes Jones as an accomplished poet whose work explores masculinity, love, grief and connection. His book, I Still Believe in Miracles: Poems to Find Meaning in Difficult Times, was released earlier this year. He once fronted the band The Rose Affair.

If the spring 2027 schedule holds, the film’s test will be whether its themes of notoriety, generational trauma and vanished love can support a first lead film role and a directorial debut; until a distributor, fuller cast and release plan emerge, those ambitions remain unproven.