'The Crow Girl' Coughs Up a U.K. Release Date

Paramount stopped being a going concern in the streaming wars sometime in mid-2023 when the attempt to go big or go bust wound up busting the century-old studio. One of the original Hollywood heavyweights, Paramount Studios survived the transition to television in the 1940s and 1950s (hey, listen, RKO did not!) but will not make it out of the streaming wars as the deal to sell itself to Skydance closes later in 2025. In the run-up to the sale, the Paramunt+ UK arm was shuttered after only completing a few series. However, it needed to look like a functioning unit, so it greenlit a few new shows, including The Crow Girl.

Based on Erik Axl Sund's book of the same name, The Crow Girl is a straight-up old-school Nordic Noir novel*: a serial killer on the loose, grey skies, dark rooms, depressive vibes, and bloody bodies. The series was acquired by Buccaneer Media, one of the leading companies behind Paramount+'s original raft of shows it greenlit and then canceled, including The Doll Factory and The Burning Girls, with actor-turned-writer/producer Milly Thomas (Doctor Who) adapting the book.

(*That tracks, as "Erik Axl Sund" is actually the nom de plume used by Swedish writing duo Håkan Axlander Sundquist and Jerker Eriksson.)

Unlike all those canceled shows, The Crow Girl is not currently planned for a Paramount+ U.S. release, leaving the series without an American distributor. That's a bit ironic, as so many of the canceled shows starred actors Americans had never heard of, while this series features three well-known faces: Eve Myles (Torchwood), Katherine Kelly (Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office), and Dougray Scott (Vigil).

Here's the series' synopsis.

The Crow Girl begins with a teenage boy’s discarded body. Determined to find who is responsible, DCI Jeanette Kilburn joins forces with psychotherapist Dr. Sophia Craven to hunt the killer despite opposition from her superiors including confidant DI Lou Stanley. The investigation takes them into a dangerous world of historic abuse and murder. Together they uncover a chain of shocking events involving the disappearance of children that have gone overlooked for decades, as well as evidence of police corruption. As the body count rises and the two women are dragged into the depths of the murders, an intimacy starts to form between them, and so begins a complex, twisted love story. All the while, the killer is inching ever closer to home.

Myles stars as DCI Jeanette Kilburn, Scott as her superior officer, DI Lou Stanley, and Kelly as Dr. Sophia Craven. The ensemble cast also includes Clara Rugaard (Black Mirror), Trevor White (Industry), Victoria Hamilton (COBRA), Elliot Edusah (1917), Chloe Sweetlove (Bergerac), Lee Boardman (Brexit: The Uncivil War), Lauren Morais (The Red King), and Ashling O'Shea (Hollyoaks).

Thomas penned all six series episodes, with directors Charles Martin (His Dark Materials) and Rebecca Rycroft (We Hunt Together) splitting helming duties, with Andy Mosse producing. Thomas is also an executive producer on the series for Buccaneer Media alongside Tony Wood and Richard Tulk-Hart.

The Crow Girl will debut with all episodes on Paramount+ in the U.K. on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Hopefully, Hulu or BritBox will pick it up for the U.S. market.