Is a Luigi Mangione drama series already in the works?

The shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has become such a media frenzy that people are already envisioning its adaptation for the small screen. In the wake of the murder — which occurred outside of a Hilton Hotel in New York — police led a week-long manhunt that culminated in the arrest of suspect Luigi Mangione in Pennsylvania, after he was spotted by an employee at a McDonald’s restaurant.

By that point, public interest in the case had already reached fever pitch. Much of the commentary around the shooting has noted the V for Vendetta-like nature of the case, the inscriptions found on the bullets that killed Thompson, and the police’s discovery of Monopoly money in a backpack believed to belong to the suspect.

All of those salacious and intriguing details — besides the fact that Mangione has become something of an internet sensation — have the workings of a true crime television show, but do we know whether a Luigi Mangione drama series is actually in the works?

There’s no plans for a television adaptation (yet)

As far as we know, no drama series based on the Luigi Mangione case is currently in the works. But that hasn’t lessened the general feeling that the murder feels almost uncannily like it’s made for the screen. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Adrian Askarieh — the Hollywood producer behind assassin films like Hitman — said the Mangione case “felt like something literally out of a movie.” He went on to say footage of Thompson being gunned down “really resonated with me with regards to real life imitating art and vice versa.” 

While it’s perhaps too soon for any concrete plans for a drama show to come to light, that hasn’t stopped the public from envisioning the kind of series that could eventually hit screens, right down to its speculative cast and showrunners.     

Ryan Murphy and Dave Franco are trending following Luigi Mangione’s arrest. 

Just hours after Mangione’s arrest, both Ryan Murphy and Dave Franco began trending on X in relation to the suspected murderer. Coments predicted that, should an adaptation ever make it to the silver screen, it would be Murphy who would produce it. The Hollywood mogul is best known for his anthology series like Monsters and American Crime Story, both of which document dramatized accounts of real-life true crime stories that captured the nation’s attention in much the same way as Mangione. 

Most installments of those seasons are based on criminal cases that produced a media frenzy, including the scandalous murder cases involving OJ Simpson and Gianni Versace. In Monsters, meanwhile, Murphy has chronicled the murders and criminal trials of killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Erik and Lyle Menedez. Many social media users believe the Mangione case has all the familiar trappings of the Murphy-produced TV treatment, but their predictions also extend to who will be in front of the camera. 

Superbad star Franco was top of mind for many X users when theorizing about a Mangione drama series, due to the actor’s striking resemblance to the real-life suspect. Netizens joked that Murphy would already be drafting the scripts for the series while getting into contact with the actor for the starring role, which is of course purely just fan speculation at this point. In any case, we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Murphy getting his hands on an adaptation of the Mangione case, but a documentary series is probably the more imminent content we’ll get given the freshness of the case.