Anne Hathaway Leads Fear Not, Paramount+'s Gripping Limited Series About a Serial Killer's Captive
Anne Hathaway heads to Paramount+ with Fear Not, a limited series ripped from real events that casts her as a woman abducted by a serial killer — and she’s also executive producing.
Here’s one straight from the 'truth is stranger than fiction' file: Anne Hathaway is heading to Paramount+ to star in and produce a limited series called 'Fear Not,' about a Texas woman who survived being kidnapped by a serial killer—and, in a truly wild twist, ended up befriending him. This isn’t your average true crime retread. If you think you’ve heard every serial killer story out there, think again.
What 'Fear Not' Is Actually About
The show adapts a 2023 Vanity Fair article that chronicled the bizarre relationship between a notorious killer named Stephen Morin (who, just to add context, was suspected of more crimes than even Ted Bundy) and Margy Palm, a devout Texas mom who became his final hostage in 1981. Anne Hathaway plays Margy, but don’t expect a damsel-in-distress routine here; the way she handled this situation is, well, kind of astonishing.
Flashback: It’s December 11, 1981. Margy is outside a Kmart picking up last-minute Christmas gifts when Morin snatches her. She spends eight hours as his hostage—eight hours of what could’ve ended as another tragedy. But things take a seriously unexpected turn: Margy connects with him through her faith, showing compassion that somehow flips the script. Morin lets her go free.
The story doesn’t end when she walks away, though. Even after Morin winds up on death row, Margy keeps visiting him in prison—over a dozen times, by the time he’s executed by lethal injection in 1985 at just 34. It’s not your everyday captor-captive dynamic.
Who’s Calling the Shots Here?
- Anne Hathaway stars as Margy Palm and is also executive producing (plus, her producing partners Adam Shulman and Jonathan Rice are in the mix under the Somewhere Pictures banner).
- Bash Doran, best known for 'Boardwalk Empire,' is writing and also executive producing. If Doran’s name rings a bell, she’s having a banner year—she just got two other shows greenlit: 'Foster Dade' for Hulu and 'How To Survive Without Me' at HBO Max.
- Steve Stark and Stacey Levin are on board as exec producers for Toluca Pictures (these are the folks behind 'Wednesday'), and Helen Estabrook is repping Vanity Fair Studios.
- Margy Palm herself is involved behind the scenes as a producer, along with Bart and Noelle Palm. You rarely see this much direct input from the original people involved in the story.
The Journey to Paramount+
'Fear Not' didn’t just magically appear at Paramount+. It actually started life at Prime Video, but they eventually passed. That’s when Paramount+ pounced, picking up the project in September 2023. This wasn’t a casual acquisition—apparently, this was one of the first major moves by the streamer’s new power players (Cindy Holland and Jane Wiseman). They put the pedal down: greenlighted a pilot script rewrite, ordered backup scripts, and commissioned a full series bible immediately.
Paramount+’s Jane Wiseman had this to say about the show:
'At Paramount+, we are always looking for stories that captivate and entertain our audience, and this series will do exactly that. By grounding this chilling true story in the lived experience of our protagonist, Anne is bringing a level of nuance and gravity to the screen that only a performer of her caliber can. We are thrilled to collaborate with Anne, Bash and the rest of this illustrious team and we can’t wait for viewers to see what is sure to be an enthralling limited series.'
Final Thoughts
So, is 'Fear Not' just another true crime drama, or is this shaping up to be something deeper and weirder? Between Anne Hathaway taking the lead and the real-life Margy Palm helping steer the story, I’m leaning toward the latter. If you’re into stories where faith, danger, and human psychology collide in unpredictable ways, this one sounds worth watching for.