The Hunting Wives

Did You Know?

• Netflix licensed U.S. rights for one year in June 2025; the series is not available on Netflix in Canada or Australia, where Crave and Stan hold the rights respectively.
• The series is set in the fictional East Texas town of Maple Brook.

Production

In October 2023, Starz ordered eight episodes of the series, with Rebecca Cutter adapting the novel and serving as executive producer and showrunner. Lionsgate Television and 3 Arts Entertainment produced. Malin Akerman stated that Melania Trump was used as a reference for her character Margo Banks. In September 2025, Netflix acquired the series as a global original for an eight-episode second season; a third season is in development and set to shoot in fall 2026. Casting began in January 2024 with Akerman, followed by Brittany Snow, Dermot Mulroney, and Evan Jonigkeit in February, and Chrissy Metz, Jaime Ray Newman, Katie Lowes, and George Ferrier in March. For the second season, Hunter Emery and Karen Rodriguez were promoted to series regulars in November 2025, and recurring roles were cast in December 2025 (Kim Matula, Alex FitzAlan, John Stamos, Cam Gigandet, Dale Dickey), January 2026 (Angel Reese), and February 2026 (Casey Mills). Pre-production began January 18, 2024, in North Charlotte, with 18 weeks of filming. Principal photography started by March 2024 in North Carolina, where Downtown Mooresville was transformed into an East Texas city; production wrapped in June 2024. Akerman noted that intimacy coordinator Lizzie Talbot was on set for nudity and sex scenes. Second-season filming ran from November 17, 2025, to March 13, 2026. Jeff Danna composed the score.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an 81% approval rating from 31 critic reviews, with the consensus calling it "a risqué soap that turns bad behavior into highly bingeable fun." Metacritic gave a score of 73 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. For the week of July 21–27, it ranked third on Netflix's English-language TV list with 5.2 million views, and Luminate reported it was the most-streamed series in the United States for the week of July 25–31, accumulating over 2 billion minutes viewed.