The Time Traveler's Wife: Rose Leslie and Theo James Cast as Leads

Rose Leslie and Theo James have been cast as the leads in The Time Traveler's Wife, HBO's drama series based on the romantic novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Adapted by former Dr. Who head writer and Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat, The Time Traveler’s tells of the story of Henry DeTamble (James), a dashing, adventuresome librarian who has a genetic disorder that makes him travel involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire (Leslie), an artist who falls in love with him and has to deal with his sudden and sometimes long absences. Henry and Clare’s passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap.

Leslie, who played Ygritte on Game of Thrones, recently starred in The Good Fight and previously recurred on Downton Abbey. She next will be seen in the feature Death on the Nile, Divergent franchise star James’ recent TV series credits include Castlevania and ITV's Sandition (which has just confirmed for a second and third season).

Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat will also be writing as showrunner for this series. Moffat, Sue Vertue, and Brian Minchin will executive produce the show through their company Hartswood Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. Warner Bros.' New Line division produced the 2009 movie adaptation of the book that starred Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. The series is currently in pre-production. It has been a priority project for HBO since they acquired the project in a highly competitive situation with a straight-to-series order.

Moffat has been a fan of Audrey Niffenegger's novel for years, even writing one of his most famous Who episodes as a response to it - naturally he was thrilled to be offered the chance to adapt it when HBO ordered the series:

"I read Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife many years ago, and I fell in love with it. In fact, I wrote a Doctor Who episode called 'The Girl in the Fireplace' as a direct response to it. When, in her next novel, Audrey had a character watching that very episode, I realized she was probably on to me. All these years later, the chance to adapt the novel itself, is a dream come true. The brave new world of long-form television is now ready for this kind of depth and complexity. It's a story of happy ever after – but not necessarily in that order."

However, Moffat said that there were not too many similarities between the two programmes (Doctor Who & The Time Traveler's Wife) despite the time travel connection:

“Time travel is kind of [the only connection],” he said. “It’s actually very very different. Although I happily riffed on the Time Traveller’s Wife a couple of times in Doctor Who with Girl in the Fireplace and River Song, actually time travel is a problem to the characters in Time Traveller’s Wife. They don’t want to be in that film. They want to be in when Harry Met Sally.”

Filming began on the series in May in New York, with David Nutter directing all six episodes. In May 2021, Caitlin Shorey, Everleigh McDonnell, Michael Park, Jaime Ray Newman, Taylor Richardson, Peter Graham, Brian Altemus, Jason David, Kate Siegel, Josh Stamberg, Chelsea Frei, Marcia DeBonis, Will Brill and Spencer House joined the cast of the series.

There are also two other Time Traveler's Wife works in development. A stage musical based on the book was announced to be in development in March 2021, which is due to premiere in the UK in late 2021 or early 2022. The musical will be titled The Time Traveller's Wife (using the UK spelling of Traveler) and feature a book by Lauren Gunderson music and lyrics by Joss Stone and Dave Stewart with additional lyrics by Kait Kerrigan. The production will be directed by Bill Buckhurst and produced by Colin Ingram for InTheatre Productions by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures.

In response to the announcement, Niffeneger revealed on Twitter she did not know about the project then clarified that the theatrical rights belonged to Warner Bros.

Also, the long awaited sequel is officially being written by the author. The sequel will focus on Henry and Clare's daughter Alba as an adult. She finds herself in love with two different men: Zach, a normal man, and Oliver, a musician and fellow time-traveler. The first 25 pages are currently available with the purchase of The Time Traveler's Wife eBook. In February 2014, Niffenegger estimated that the book "should be ready in 2018 or so". As it's 2021, there's been no further updates on the novel yet.