For the first time in over two decades, the Ingalls family is coming back to television. Netflix dropped the debut trailer for its reimagining of Little House on the Prairie on June 11, offering audiences their first real look at what promises to be a grittier, more expansive version of the classic American story. The series premieres July 9.
The show pulls from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s third novel in her beloved semi-autobiographical book series, centering on the Ingalls family as they pack up their lives in Wisconsin and set out by covered wagon toward the open grasslands near Independence, Kansas. Australian actor Luke Bracey takes on the role of the optimistic and restless Charles Ingalls, while Crosby Fitzgerald plays his steadfast wife Caroline. Alice Halsey portrays young Laura, the spirited and headstrong heart of the story, and Skywalker Hughes plays her older sister Mary.
The supporting cast fills out a rich portrait of frontier life beyond the Ingalls household. Jocko Sims portrays Dr. George Tann, a real historical figure whose medical care reportedly saved the Ingalls family after they contracted malaria. Barrett Doss plays Emily Henderson, a self-sufficient woman running the town’s General Store and raising an orphan boy on her own. Warren Christie plays John Edwards, a Civil War veteran carrying the weight of loss as he searches for purpose on the prairie. Meegwun Fairbrother, Alyssa Wapanatahk, and Wren Zahewenim Gotts are among the Osage cast members, with Rebecca Amzallag, Kowen Cadorath, Xander Cole, Thosh Collins, Michael Hough, Ryan Robbins, Maclean Fish, and Mary Holland rounding out the ensemble.
Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine, whose credits include The Boys and The Vampire Diaries, has spoken openly about what drew her to the material. She first read the Wilder books at age five and describes them as stories about people searching for a better version of themselves. “It leans into the idea that it’s never too late to reinvent and to rediscover who you are,” she told Netflix’s Tudum.
The trailer makes clear that this adaptation is not interested in softening the edges of pioneer life. Sickness, fire, and predators all factor into a first season that Sonnenshine herself has described as part family drama and part survival story. The series also takes on something previous adaptations largely avoided: the reality that the land the Ingalls family settled on had long been home to the Osage Nation. Sonnenshine has said it was important to her that Osage characters be portrayed as full human beings with their own families, cultures, and inner lives rather than as background figures in a settler story.
Produced by CBS Studios and Anonymous Content, the series has already secured a second season renewal before a single episode has aired. That confidence is not entirely surprising given that the original NBC series from the 1970s and 80s, which starred Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon, has been pulling in around 220 million streaming hours annually on Netflix alone.
Little House on the Prairie debuts July 9 on Netflix.