Jane Austen fans quite simply keep winning this week! Fresh on the heels of The Other Bennet Sister getting a three-part Christmas special, Focus Features has dropped the first trailer for the new Sense and Sensibility movie. It’s the first big film adaptation of that book since Ang Lee‘s Oscar-winning 1995 version, starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet as Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. This time around, Daisy Edgar-Jones plays the sensible Elinor, pining after the unattainable Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), while Esme Creed-Miles steps into the role of the passionate Marianne.
However, one casting choice might have period drama fans a little agog: Outlander star Caitriona Balfe is playing Mrs. Dashwood, the girls’ widowed mother. Not only is Balfe following up eight seasons on one period drama for another, but she might seem a little… young… for Mrs. Dashwood.
When DECIDER spoke with Balfe earlier this year ahead of the Outlander Season 8 premiere, she told us she’s well-aware of both facts and she’s “excited” for audiences to see this bold new take on the material.
“I think, before, [Mrs. Dashwood has] always been this sort of like older, more kind of like a removed matriarch,” Balfe said. “But, you know, [director Georgia Oakley] sort of spoke about the similarities between Marianne and Mrs. Dashwood, and that there’s this link and it’s very much, I think, a return to some of the stuff in the book. And that was exciting.”
Balfe shared that Oakley’s talent and vision was what convinced her to take on the project in the first place.
“You know, I was such a huge fan of the Ang Lee version, and, you know, when somebody sort of said to me, ‘You know, Sense and Sensibility, I was like, ‘Oh, another period drama. Like, I just got out of one and [the 1995 film is] so great,’” Balfe said. “And when I found out Georgia was doing it — and I had loved her first film, Blue Jean, so much — and also that it was going to be Working Title and Focus [Features] and everyone who was involved, I was like, ‘Oh, this is interesting. Like, let me talk to Georgia.’”
Balfe was immediately won over by Oakley’s “vision” for the film. “I think what Georgia really wanted to do, and what I think that she has achieved, is grounded in a way that’s very much more naturalistic, I guess, and much more… I don’t know, I think it might speak to our generation in a sort of fresh way,” she said.
“That’s the great thing about these classic texts and these stories that we keep going back to time and time again is that every new generation has their own take on it. And so I’m very excited about it.”
Back in January, Balfe told DECIDER that she was eager to see the finished film. “I’ve seen a sizzle reel, which, you know, is a very small slice of it. And I was very, very excited by what I saw,” Balfe said.
Now, fans everywhere have also gotten their first sneak peek at the 2026 Sense and Sensibility film, due out in theaters on October 16.