When Will Olivia Colman’s R-Rated ‘Wicked Little Letters’ Arrive on Streaming?

Two leading ladies of British cinema, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, are teaming up for director Thea Sharrock’s latest outing, Wicked Little Letters. Based on early reviews, it sounds like it’s one of the raunchiest must-sees of the year. We’ll let you know when you can expect to see the film arrive on streaming.

Based on a true “whodunit” story that’s almost too wild to believe, Wicked Little Letters takes place in the 1920s, and follows the plight of Edith Swan (Colman), a good (or so it seems) Christian woman and resident of a small English village, as she and her neighbors begin to receive scandalous letters full of R-rated profanities. This leads the town’s women—and police officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) to launch a full investigation into the matter.

The main suspect is Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), a historically foul-mouthed single mother who has a reputation of disturbing the peace around Littlehampton. However, all is not as it seems, as the anonymous author isn’t exactly who the town’s oh-so-polite polite residents would expect, with Rose’s trial revealing that she may not be responsible for penning such crude letters after all.

Wicked Little Letters premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival in September, and was released in U.S. theaters on March 29, 2024, following its U.K. premiere in March. Currently, the movie is still playing in theaters, meaning it might be some time before it’s available on streaming.

Given that the dark comedy is being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, it seems likely that it will debut on either Netflix or Prime Video, depending on licensing agreements. We don’t yet know an exact streaming/VOD or DVD release window, but we’ll be keeping our eyes out.

At the time of writing, Wicked Little Letters holds an overall positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, scoring a solid 76% with critics and 80% with general audiences—which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the combined comedic power of Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley.

As you may recall, the two actresses have appeared onscreen together in the past, memorably, in the Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter. In the Maggie Gyllenhaal-helmed drama, Buckley played a younger version of Colman’s character, Leda. Their Wicked Little Letters reunion marks quite a dramatic departure from their other previous collaboration—the family-friendly Netflix special, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol.

For now, those hoping to catch Wicked Little Letters on streaming should sit tight, as there’s a good chance the film could debut on streaming services as early as June. Given the unbelievable—and, frankly, hilarious—true story it’s based on, this is a mystery-comedy we don’t want to miss.

(featured image: StudioCanal)