Anya Taylor-Joy Steps Into Power: Producing and Starring in Apple TV+’s 'Lucky'

Anya Taylor-Joy is no stranger to high-stakes roles—from a chess prodigy in The Queen’s Gambit to a vengeful warrior in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. But with her latest project, the actress is stepping into a new kind of power: executive producer.

Lucky, a seven-part action thriller premiering on Apple TV+ on July 15, marks Taylor-Joy’s first time taking on producing duties alongside her starring role. In the series, she plays Lucky Armstrong, a con artist forced to return to her old life after a multimillion-dollar heist goes horribly wrong. The show, based on Marissa Stapley’s 2021 crime novel, also features Timothy Olyphant as her father and Annette Bening as the mob boss hunting her down.

A Double Role: Star and Executive Producer

Taylor-Joy’s journey to producing began with a dream phone call. As she revealed in an interview documented in Screenshot (550).png, “I first received a call hearing that Hello Sunshine wanted me to read a book and that they wanted to co-produce it with me, which is a dream sentence to hear.”

Hello Sunshine, the production company founded by Reese Witherspoon, is known for championing female-driven stories—from the Emmy-winning Big Little Lies to Oscar-nominated films like Gone Girl and Wild. For Taylor-Joy, the opportunity wasn’t just exciting; it felt personally fulfilling.

“Once I read the book, I thought, ‘Oh, I actually have something to contribute,’” she said. “As a producer, you want to feel you have something—or fingerprints you can put on something—that will make it, hopefully, elevated.”

Behind the Scenes: The Making of ‘Lucky’

The series, which Taylor-Joy executive produced through her own company LadyKiller, gives her an unprecedented level of creative control. On set, she wasn’t just delivering lines—she was shaping the world around her character.

“Being a part of the producing team—and in on all the different decisions I’ve always wanted to be a part of—meant I got to shape the world this character was going to inhabit,” she explained in the same interview.

Taylor-Joy’s dual role allowed her to obsess over every detail, from script to costume to tone. “I care about every aspect of how you make something—I’m interested in how it works,” she said. “Because if I’m a part of all those discussions, then I get to show up on set and completely relinquish control because I’ve done all the preparation beforehand.”

The show’s production also includes LadyKiller, which she founded to develop projects driven by her own passions. Lucky is the first of several projects under that banner, followed by the upcoming Netflix thriller series How To Kill Your Family.

The Appeal of a Morally Ambiguous Woman

Taylor-Joy has always gravitated toward complex characters, but Lucky Armstrong offered something she felt was missing from modern storytelling. “The feminist in me was a bit frustrated at seeing a lot of morally ambiguous men and not that many morally ambiguous women on screen,” she said.

Rather than playing the polished, slick con artist audiences have seen in countless films, Taylor-Joy’s Lucky is restless, vulnerable, and driven by survival. “I love con men in movies, and they were always very slick and sexy when I adored them,” she noted. “But Lucky gave a different vision of what it is to be somebody who can never sit still, and who has to take from other people—that was a side of the con I’d never seen before.”

Career Highlights and What’s Next

At 30, Taylor-Joy has already built an impressive resume. After earning an Emmy nomination for her breakout role in The Queen’s Gambit (2020), she voiced Princess Peach in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and headlined the epic Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). She’s also set to appear in Dune: Part Three, slated for release in December 2026.

But producing isn’t just a business move for her—it’s a creative outlet that feeds her acting. “LadyKiller allows me to be obsessed with the things that I’m obsessed with,” she said, adding that she values being surprised by the universe. “I think it’s a dance, much like in life. You can control certain things, but if you’re going to be surprised by the universe, you have to leave some space for the divine—you can’t plan the things that will work out far better than you imagine.”

The series also explores themes of betrayal and redemption. Taylor-Joy reflected on one character’s journey: “You know that old expression, ‘When a door closes, a window opens?’ The idea that everything is supposed to happen in a certain way, or whatever you focus on is the thing that magnifies? Somebody can let you down, then you can meet somebody else—and that will open up a whole other world of possibilities.”

Key Facts at a Glance

• Premiere Date: July 15 on Apple TV+
• Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Timothy Olyphant, Annette Bening
• Based On: Marissa Stapley’s 2021 novel Lucky
• Produced By: Hello Sunshine (Reese Witherspoon’s company) and LadyKiller (Taylor-Joy’s company)
• Genre: Action thriller (7 episodes)
• Executive Producers: Anya Taylor-Joy, along with Hello Sunshine team

Lucky premieres exclusively on Apple TV+ on July 15. With Taylor-Joy at the helm both in front of and behind the camera, it’s shaping up to be one of the most anticipated small-screen events of the summer.

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