Netflix's 'One Day' Trailer Wrestles with Love and Fate
Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall in "One Day"
(Photo: Matthew Towers/Netflix)
Love rarely follows a straight line, a fact which is more evident than usual in the trailer for Netflix's upcoming romantic drama One Day, a swoon-worthy story of fate, chance encounters, and the unexpected connections that go on to shape our lives.
“It’s one of the great cosmic mysteries,” a voiceover intones at the start of the clip. “How is it that someone can go from being a total stranger to being the most important person in your life?”
The series stars Ambika Mod (This is Going to Hurt) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) as Dex and Emma, who meet as students on the eve of their college graduation in 1998. Though the duo are instantly attracted to one another, they're both leaving town the next day and reluctant to take things between them any further. They decide to stay friends, instead, and what follows is. multi-decade will they/won't they-style drama that follows both characters as their lives diverse and circle back together over the years. The series checks in both of them on the same day—July 15—for the next twenty years as the two weave in and out of each other's lives, one year older in each episode and grappling with their own choices, desires, and regrets.
If all of this sounds kind of familiar, it's because this Netflix version is actually the second recent adaptation of Nicholls' story. A feature film version of One Day starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess premiered back in 2011, but of course, there's bound to be a big difference between a two-hour movie and a fourteen-part British television series.
The trailer leans heavily into the story's star-crossed vibe, full of glimpses of the future for both characters as their lives diverge and reconnect over time. We see the pair get into other relationships, face challenges, experience losses, and endure heartbreak. Yet, despite all these changes, their one constant remains each other.
Here's the series synopsis.
One Day tells the story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew who, on 15th July 1988, the night of their graduation, speak for the very first time. The next morning, they go their separate ways but where will they be on this one ordinary day the next year, and the year after that, and every year that follows?
Each episode finds Dex and Em, one year older, on this one particular date, as they grow and change, move together and apart, experience joy and heartbreak. One Day is a decades-spanning love story, based on the worldwide bestseller by David Nicholls.
Alongside Mod and Woodall, the series stars Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark), Essie Davis (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries), Tim McInnerny (Blackadder), Amber Grappy, Jonny Weldon (The Outlaws) Joely Richardson (Renegade Nell) and Toby Stephens (Treat Yourself).
One Day hails from a team of writers led by BAFTA winner Nicole Taylor (Wild Rose), alongside Anna Jordan (Killing Eve), Vinay Patal (Doctor Who), and Bijan Sheibani (Morning Song). The drama is directed by Molly Manners (In My Skin), Kate Hewitt (Life), John Hardwick (Follow the Money), and Luke Sneilin (Wanderlust). It is produced by Drama Republic, with Roanna Bern, Jude Liknaitzky, Nicholls, and Taylor serving as executive producers. Nige Watson is series producer.
The series will officially premiere on Netflix on February 8, 2024.
