Anne Hathaway is having a moment. Between Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, the long-awaited The Devil Wears Prada 2, and the Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity, she's everywhere. But instead of coasting on another prestige project, she's diving into something far more unsettling. Paramount+'s upcoming limited series Fear Not asks Hathaway to embody a woman whose faith, compassion, and resilience were tested by one of the strangest true-crime stories ever told.
Based on Julie Miller's Vanity Fair feature "Sympathy for the Devil," the six-part series centers on Margy Palm, the last woman abducted by serial killer Stephen Morin in 1981. But unlike most true-crime adaptations, Fear Not isn't about the killer. The focus is squarely on Palm's experience—her terror, her survival, and the complicated aftermath that followed.
Hathaway's Evolution Toward Darker Roles
If you still think of Hathaway as the princess from The Princess Diaries or the fashionista from The Devil Wears Prada, you're missing out. Over the past decade, she's gravitated toward characters with inner turmoil masked by calm exteriors. From the psychological unease of Eileen to the messy dynamics of The Idea of You, she's consistently chosen stories that defy easy answers. Her upcoming slate continues that trend—The Odyssey brings mythic drama, while Verity dives into psychological suspense.
Fear Not feels like a natural next step. The challenge isn't just playing scared—any actor can do that. Margy Palm's story demands something more delicate: balancing terror with conviction, vulnerability with resolve, and compassion without erasing the violence she endured. It's an emotional tightrope that could easily tip into sentimentality, but Hathaway has spent years resisting that kind of simplification.
Not Your Typical Serial Killer Drama
The easy route would have been another serial-killer thriller. Hollywood has plenty of those. But Fear Not takes the opposite approach. Palm's ordeal was brief, yet its impact lingered for years. After Morin was sentenced to death, she reached out to him, visited him, and wrestled with questions of faith, accountability, and forgiveness.
Palm reportedly turned down adaptation offers for decades because she didn't want her story reduced to a conventional thriller or a simple religious parable. The reality, by her own account, was messier. She doesn't claim to have definitive answers about Morin or what changed in him. Instead, her story remains steeped in ambiguity, forcing viewers to confront questions that don't resolve neatly by the final credits.
Why Six Episodes Is the Perfect Length
True crime often suffers from bloat. Long-running series stretch thin material into sprawling sagas, padding with speculation and sensationalism. A six-episode limited series is ideal for Palm's story. It allows room to show the kidnapping, its emotional aftermath, Palm's journey toward understanding, and her complex bond with Morin—without glorifying violence for its own sake.
As both star and executive producer, Hathaway has a hand in shaping a series that prioritizes Palm's humanity over Morin's notoriety. If the adaptation stays true to Palm's perspective, it could sidestep the usual criticisms of true-crime fare. For Hathaway, it's another chance to prove her best work comes from characters who defy easy categorization—neither heroes nor villains, just people navigating impossible circumstances.
After the epic battles of The Odyssey, Fear Not won't require Hathaway to fight monsters or lead armies. Instead, she'll portray a woman whose greatest act of courage was surviving without letting evil define her. If the series delivers on that promise, it could become the most emotionally challenging performance of Hathaway's career—and one of Paramount+'s most compelling limited series yet. For fans of edge-of-your-seat thrillers, this is one to watch.
