When I was a kid, we were all taught that President James Garfield was “assassinated by a disappointed office seeker.” That was all we learned about that president. Netflix has made a four episode series on the assassination based on Candice Millard’s bestselling nonfiction book Destiny of the Republic:
President Garfield had an eventful life before he was ever elected president. Coming from a poor background, he became a college professor and then went on to be the president of his school. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he organized a regiment and was later promoted to brigadier general. After the war, he became a powerful leader in Congress and, without campaigning, he was elected to the highest office in the United States.
Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are turning their attention to a different type of political power play.
The Emmy-winning duo is joining forces with creator Mike Makowsky (Bad Education) and director Matt Ross (28 Hotel Rooms, Captain Fantastic, Gaslit) on Death by Lightning. Based on Candice Millard’s…Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, the limited series chronicles the extraordinary life and death of 20th US president James Garfield and premieres in November….
Death by Lightning is a limited drama series that’s based on the epic and stranger-than-fiction true story of James Garfield, reluctant 20th president of the United States, and Charles Guiteau — a man who was not only Garfield’s greatest admirer but also his assassin.
While the setting of the series might be nearly 150 years in the past, Death by Lightning feels incredibly relevant, says Makowsky. “The theme of corruption in politics and our bureaucracy feels particularly evergreen these days,” he tells Tudum. “The idea of civil service reform and waging a battle to clean up the grift in our government — this is something that Garfield very much stood on the front lines of in his time. In 1881, it feels like America is sort of standing at a crossroads between the past and what the future of this country is going to look like, and it’s up to [people like Garfield] to really define how America, 100 years after its inception, is going to look and what kind of society they’re going to be.”
The characters include some of the Republican Party’s nascent politicians during the Civil War who rose to power during Reconstruction. Here is who plays them:
- Michael Shannon (George & Tammy, Waco, Nocturnal Animals) as James Garfield
- Matthew Macfadyen (Succession, Pride & Prejudice, Operation Mincemeat) as Charles Guiteau
- Betty Gilpin (American Primeval, GLOW, Mrs. Davis) as First Lady Crete Garfield
- Nick Offerman (The Last of Us, Parks and Recreation, Fargo) as Vice President Chester Arthur
- Bradley Whitford (The Handmaid’s Tale, Get Out, The West Wing) as Senator James Blaine
- Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire, Take Shelter) as Senator Roscoe Conkling
- Paula Malcomson (Deadwood, Ray Donovan) as Franny Scoville, sister of Charles Guiteau
- Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey, Mank) as Kate Chase Sprague
- Archie Fisher (Steve, Last Days of John Allen Chau) as Joe Brown
- Laura Marcus (The Serpent Queen) as James and Crete’s daughter Mollie Garfield
- Barry Shabaka Henley (Forever, Bob Hearts Abishola) as Senator Blanche Bruce
- Željko Ivanek (Damages, Walking Dead: Dead City) as Dr. Bliss
- Kyle Soller (Andor, Bodies) as Robert Todd Lincoln
- Ben Miles (The Crown, Napoleon) a Gesorge Scoville
- Vondie Curtis-Hall (Harriet) as Frederick Douglass
- Shaun Parkes (Small Axe: Mangrove) as Dr. Charles Purvis
- Alistair Petrie (The Night Manager, Sex Education) as John Sherman
