Margot Robbie's Luckychap Brings Netflix Series 'The Retrievals' to New York and New Haven with Molly Smith Metzler Writing

One of the more anticipated drama series heading toward a fall 2026 production start is now taking shape in a meaningful way. Netflix and Luckychap Entertainment are moving forward with The Retrievals, a limited series adaptation of the widely heard 2023 Serial Productions podcast of the same name. The show is set to begin principal photography on September 1, 2026, with filming confirmed across two locations: New York City and the Yale Fertility Center in New Haven, Connecticut. For crew based in the New York tri-state area, this one deserves your attention now.

The writing is being handled by Molly Smith Metzler, who earned enormous industry respect and a Primetime Emmy nomination for her work as creator and showrunner of Maid, the Netflix limited series that became one of the platform's most-watched originals of 2021. Metzler has a particular gift for dramatizing systemic failures through deeply personal, emotionally grounded storytelling, and The Retrievals plays directly into that strength. The source material is harrowing: the podcast documented how a fertility nurse at Yale replaced fentanyl with saline during egg retrieval procedures, leaving patients in agonizing, unmedicated pain while the medical staff around them repeatedly dismissed their suffering. Colin McKenna, who has credits on The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Haunting of Hill House, is co-writing the series alongside Metzler, bringing a strong collaborative voice to what promises to be a tonally precise, emotionally demanding project.

The producing team is led by Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley through their Luckychap Entertainment banner, alongside Susan Burton and Caitlin Roper. Robbie and Ackerley have built Luckychap into one of the most creatively credible producing companies operating today, with a track record that includes Barbie, I, Tonya, Birds of Prey, and Promising Young Woman. The company has a clear and consistent sensibility: stories centered on women, told with a combination of formal ambition and commercial appeal. Susan Burton is a veteran of Serial Productions, the podcast studio co-founded by Sarah Koenig that originated The Retrievals, and her involvement signals a commitment to honoring the rigor and intimacy of the source material. Caitlin Roper, a longtime journalist and author who has focused extensively on women's healthcare issues, rounds out a producing team that brings both narrative and subject-matter credibility to this project.

Netflix is producing and distributing the series through Netflix Productions, LLC, which means this is a straight-to-Netflix original with the full weight of the platform's development and production infrastructure behind it. Netflix has had a strong relationship with Luckychap and has shown consistent appetite for limited series in this prestige drama space, particularly projects with a social justice dimension that travel well internationally. Expect a budget tier and production scale consistent with a mid-to-upper-range Netflix limited series, likely somewhere in the range that supports meaningful production design work, a fully unionized crew, and the logistical complexity of shooting across two states.

The dual-location setup is one of the more interesting crew logistics notes on this production. New York City will serve as the primary base, which means access to one of the deepest below-the-line talent pools in North America. New York's film infrastructure is mature and union-dense, with IATSE Local 600, Local 52, Local 829, and the Teamsters all well-represented on Netflix productions in the city. The state's film tax credit program, which offers a 25 to 35 percent refundable credit depending on production location within the state, is almost certainly a factor in anchoring the production to New York. The secondary location at Yale Fertility Center in New Haven adds a Connecticut component that will require coordination across state lines, and a strong locations department will be essential to managing that relationship with an active medical facility. The subject matter also suggests that the production will lean on technical consultants, a thoughtful props and medical set-dressing team, and intimacy coordinators given the nature of the procedures being depicted.

With a September 2026 start date, the production is currently in development but is clearly moving with purpose. Line producers Kristyn Macready and William Sell are already attached, which is a meaningful signal: when line producers are named this far in advance on a prestige limited series, it typically means the production is already working through budgeting, scheduling, and early logistics. Department heads in camera, production design, costume, and locations should be positioning themselves now. Casting has not been publicly announced yet, but given the Luckychap profile and Netflix's typical approach to prestige limited series, talent announcements are likely to follow in the coming months, which will accelerate the full crew staffing timeline.

For the most current information on production contacts, office addresses, and crew list updates as this production ramps toward its 2026 start, the full listing for The Retrievals is available now on ProductionList.com. This is the kind of project where being early matters. Bookmark it, check back regularly, and put your name in front of the right people before the department head slots are locked.

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