The Thursday Murder Club movie still doesn’t have an official release date, but it should hopefully be released this year on Netflix.
Richard Osman confirmed that the adaptation of his bestselling books finished production on September 11, 2024, and we even got a new set photo to mark the occasion.
The author didn’t adapt his own book for the movie which was a “deliberate choice”: “You’re either really involved or you’re not, and I honestly would rather spend my time writing another book than getting involved in all of that so I absolutely left them to it.”
Osman did visit the set during filming though, alongside a certain Steven Spielberg who is producing the movie through his company Amblin Entertainment.
“He just had that incredible presence. There’s certain people you meet where you go, ‘Oh my god, you’re Steven Spielberg’. It was so lovely seeing even the other actors were excited to be around him,” Osman recalled.
We might not yet have a confirmed release date for The Thursday Murder Club, but we were treated to a first look at the titular club in July 2024.
Netflix released an image of author Richard Osman with director Chris Colombus on set with Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie in character as Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce, respectively.
We haven’t had any looks at the supporting cast, including David Tennant and Naomi Ackie – but hopefully we’ll get that whenever the release date is announced.
As we wait for that, here’s everything you need to know about The Thursday Murder Club movie.
Thursday Murder Club potential release date: When can we expect The Thursday Murder Club movie?
As of January 2025, we don’t yet have an official release date for The Thursday Murder Club movie.
However, we do know that Netflix will now be releasing the movie. Osman has also confirmed that the film will get a cinema release too, before its streaming debut.
As with most Netflix movies, we’d expect it to be a limited run of around two weeks before it arrives on the streaming service.
Filming started on June 27, 2024 and wrapped up on September 11, 2024, barring any potential reshoots. When he shared the filming update in September 2024, Osman added that the movie “should be out next year”, but nothing has been confirmed.
“That’s cinemas and then, then on Netflix straight after that. So I would think next summer, next autumn? I would guess, but I don’t know for sure,” he added.
Hopefully, that means we’ll get to see the movie this year at some point, but all we can do is watch this space for now.
There’s also a theatre show in the works, but we wouldn’t expect to see that before the movie.
Thursday Murder Club cast: Who’s going to be in The Thursday Murder Club movie?
As mentioned above, we know who will play the four crime-solving pensioners.
After rumours linking them to the roles, Osman confirmed on April 23, 2024, that Helen Mirren is playing former spy Elizabeth Best, Pierce Brosnan is playing trade union official Ron Ritchie, and Sir Ben Kingsley is playing psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif.
It was then announced on May 21, 2024, that Celia Imrie will be playing nurse Joyce Meadowcraft, following rumours linking her – and other names such as Dame Judi Dench – to the role.
As mentioned above, we got our first look at the actors in character on July 12, 2024.
The first supporting cast members were revealed by Osman on June 18, 2024 as David Tennant, Naomi Ackie, Jonathan Pryce, Danny Mays and Henry Lloyd-Hughes.
We know that Ackie is playing police officer Donna, while Pryce is playing Elizabeth’s husband Stephen.
It’s not yet been confirmed who the other three cast members are playing, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see Mays as Donna’s boss DCI Chris Hudson.
And then shortly after filming started, Osman announced that his wife Ingrid Oliver had joined the cast as Joyce’s daughter Joanna, alongside Richard E Grant, Sarah Niles, Tom Ellis, Geoff Bell and Paul Freeman.
Niles is playing Donna’s mother Patrice and Grant has been cast as a “baddie”, but we don’t have character details for the other cast as of yet.
Don’t expect to see a meta cameo from Richard Osman in the movie though. “I might do one little voice thing, but I can’t be [in it],” he said in September 2024. “People going, ‘Why is the guy from Pointless in a Sussex police station?’. It’d be a bit odd.”
Behind the scenes, Chris Columbus – who directed the first two Harry Potter movies, as well as the likes of Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire – is writing and directing the movie.
According to Osman, Colombus praised the cast as “the greatest British cast assembled since the Harry Potter movies”.
Thursday Murder Club plot: What will The Thursday Murder Club movie be about?
When the Netflix news was announced, we got our first official synopsis for The Thursday Murder Club movie, but it’s vague:
“The story follows a group of friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case.”
Right now, we’d have to assume that the movie will follow the story of the first book.
Osman’s debut novel saw the titular group tackle their first-ever live case after a property developer is murdered in their quiet Cooper’s Chase retirement village, near the fictional village of Fairhaven in Kent.
Think Death in Paradise, only if it was set in rural England and contained numerous references to Robert Dyas, Holby City and Waitrose.
It’s possible that the movie will see the group investigate a different case, but we have a feeling that if it’s going to go away from the book series, it would do that in a sequel once the crime-solving pensioners have been established in the first movie.
Thursday Murder Club trailer: Any footage of The Thursday Murder Club movie yet?
Filming has wrapped up, but we don’t yet have any footage to show you from The Thursday Murder Club movie yet. But we’ll update this as soon as we do.
The Thursday Murder Club does not yet have a release date.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.