Under The Bridge Release Date, Plot, Cast, Trailer And More Details

There's an arms race going on between the various streaming platforms and traditional TV networks, and it's all over true-crime dramas. Entertainment providers have spent the last few years dropping a whole lot of TV series based on real-life murders and mayhem. Many of these productions are about the most notorious criminals ever, like Netflix's "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story." Others are adaptations of popular podcasts, like "Dirty John" on USA, or "Dr. Death" on Peacock. Still others take their inspiration from recent ripped-from-the-headlines chicanery, like Hulu's "The Girl from Plainville."

Intriguingly, Hulu is currently working on a true-crime drama that takes a slightly different approach. "Under the Bridge" is an upcoming series based on Rebecca Godfrey's 2005 book of the same name. It tells the story of one of the most shocking Canadian crimes of the late 1990s — yet the social issues involved are still relevant today. From the cast to the plot, here's everything we know so far about "Under the Bridge."

"Under the Bridge" has been in the works for the past couple of years, with the series getting an order from Hulu back in September 2022. True-crime fans have no doubt been wondering when the series will finally be released, and now, we know exactly when the show will debut. Coming hot off the heels of Lily Gladstone's amazing 2023 awards season, "Under the Bridge" will hit Hulu on April 17, 2024. The miniseries will run for eight episodes, with the first two dropping on the same day and the remainder airing weekly.

"Under the Bridge" is an adaptation of Rebecca Godfrey's 2005 true crime book of the same name, which details the 1997 murder of Reena Virk in British Colombia. Virk was a 14-year-old Canadian girl of South Asian descent who was viciously bullied by her peers. On November 14, several classmates lured Virk to a party near the Craigflower Bridge. There, seven teenage girls and one teenage boy mercilessly beat her. Later, as Virk tried to walk home, two of her attackers — Kelly Ellard, who was 15, and Warren Glowatski, who was 16 — attacked her again, then drowned her.

The Hulu series will feature Rebecca Godfrey as a major character. Deadline compared Godfrey's role to that of Truman Capote when he interviewed Dick Hickock and Perry Smith to write "In Cold Blood." Interestingly, Entertainment Weekly has revealed that the series will also be adapting elements of "Reena: A Father's Story," the memoir written by Virk's father, Manjit Virk. On top of all that, the character of Cam Bentland will also play a major role in the story as a police officer who happens to also be the only woman of color on the force. 

Riley Keough will star in "Under the Bridge" as novelist and journalist Rebecca Godfrey. The granddaughter of Elvis Presley, Keough has been appearing in films and TV since 2010. Most recently, she starred as the titular songstress on Amazon Prime's "Daisy Jones & The Six," and has also appeared in projects like "Mad Max: Fury Road," "The Girlfriend Experience," and "American Honey."

Lily Gladstone will co-star as Cam Bentland, a police office. Gladstone blew viewers away with her performance as Mollie Kyle in the 2023 hit "Killers of the Flower Moon." So far, she's picked up a Golden Globe for the role, and she earned an Oscar nomination for best actress. Gladstone has also wowed the public with her performances on the celebrated coming-of-age series "Reservation Dogs" and acclaimed movies like "Fancy Dance," "First Cow," and "The Unknown Country."

Vritika Gupta will play Reena Virk. Gupta is a relative newcomer to the Hollywood scene, working on projects like "Cross Hollow" and "Say Goodbye." The Hulu series will no doubt thrust Gupta into the mainstream, as well as her many talented costars. Archi Panjabi of "The Good Wife" will play her mother, which is sure to be an affecting performance. We'll also see Javon "Wanna" Walton ("Euphoria"), Aiyanna Goodfellow ("Small Axe"), Izzy G ("AJ and the Queen"), Chloe Guidry ("The Park"), and Ezra Faroque Khan ("Doctor Strange").

Samir Mehta and Liz Tigelaar will be serving as co-showrunners of "Under the Bridge," as well as executive producers. Mehta served as co-executive producer of the Hulu series "Tell Me Lies," which tells the story of a relationship over the course of eight years. He's also been a co-producer on "Fear the Walking Dead." Tigelaar is the creator of the 2020 Hulu series "Little Fires Everywhere," which starred Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Additionally, Quinn Shephard will be adapting Godfrey's book and serving as executive producer. Shephard made her directorial debut in 2017 at age 20 with her film "Blame," which she also wrote and starred in.

Riley Keough will also serve as a producer, telling Gotham about the series, "This is my first time producing a series, which has been a really incredible experience." On the directing side, "Under the Bridge" hired Geeta Vasant Patel to helm its eight episodes. She'll be executive producing as well. Patel has directed episodes of "House of the Dragon," "Dead to Me," "The Santa Clarita Diet," and "Superstore."

Finally, Rebecca Godfrey will be posthumously credited as executive producer, as she passed away from lung cancer in November 2022.

The haunting trailer for "Under the Bridge" feels like a twisted fairy tale, which isn't by accident. As co-showrunner Samir Mehta explained to Entertainment Weekly, "We wanted this to be our take on a fable or a fairy tale while also being grounded. The place where reality and fantasy meet is the universe of the show."

There's both a sense of wonder and menace on display in the official trailer, evoking a style more like "Yellowjackets" than your typical true-crime drama. "This is a tale of horror and wonder," Riley Keough's character tells us in voiceover narration, "of innocence and beauty, violence and sin. This story would haunt the island for years to come. It forever changed the fact that young girls were the ones we were supposed to protect, not be protected from."