It felt inevitable: after the fever of The Gilded Age and Apple’s controversial take on The Buccaneers, another Edith Wharton novel is heading into adaptation. Netflix has confirmed a new series based on The Age of Innocence, the book that not only cemented Wharton’s place as one of the sharpest voices in American literature but also earned her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921 — making her the first woman to receive it.

Published in 1920, the novel plunges into 1870s New York society, with its rigid codes, quiet privileges, and suppressed passions. The story of Newland Archer, torn between his duty to marry the docile May Welland and his desire for the independent Ellen Olenska, exposes the tension between individual longing and the merciless weight of social expectation. At the time, it was celebrated not only for the elegance of Wharton’s prose but for its unsparing portrait of a fading elite — a world she knew intimately.

For modern audiences, the title is often inseparable from Martin Scorsese’s lavish 1993 film starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder. Revered for its aesthetic fidelity and sumptuous atmosphere, the movie also reinforced the idea that The Age of Innocence is notoriously difficult to adapt: every gesture, silence, and ritual of etiquette carries narrative weight.

Now Netflix is betting on the long-form format, with Kristine Frøseth (yes, Nan of The Buccaneers) as May Welland, Camila Morrone (of Daisy Jones and the Six) as Ellen Olenska, Ben Radcliffe as Newland Archer, and Margo Martindale as the indomitable Mrs. Manson-Mingott. The episodic structure may allow the characters more room to breathe. Still, the question remains: can the series preserve Wharton’s irony and moral precision, or will it reduce another classic to a glossy, digestible period drama?

In today’s streaming wars, literary heritage has become both safe ground and a trap. As The Buccaneers made clear, adapting Wharton is never just about romance and costume drama — it’s about unmasking the social stage itself.