Fresh off the success of All of Us Strangers, Andrew Scott is back with the first trailer for his all-new Netflix series, Ripley. 

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Scott plays the titular character – a career criminal and con artist. While the role of Tom Ripley has been played before, most notably by Matt Damon in the 1999 film adaptation of Highsmith’s novel, Scott is prepared to bring something fresh to the character in this latest iteration. 

A synopsis of the upcoming series posted to Attitude reads: “Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. Tom’s acceptance of the job is the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud, and murder.” 

While Highsmith wrote the acclaimed queer novel The Price of Salt in 1952, the author has previously revealed: “I don’t think Ripley is gay.”

That being said, Scott, who is gay himself, describes the character as “queer”.

“If Tom Ripley was in a gay bar, I’m not sure that he would fit in there. Nor do I think he’s a straight character. I think he’s a queer character, in the sense that he’s very other. What’s his relationship with sex, or death, or with family or friends? It’s interesting that a character is the sun of the parts that you don’t have to play,” said Scott in a 2021 interview with Interview Magazine. 

Scott will be joined by Dakota Fanning and Johnny Flynn in the upcoming series written and directed by Steven Zaillian. 

Ripley is set to be available for streaming exclusively on Netflix on April 4. While you wait for the series premier, check out the first teaser trailer for Ripley below.