The Gray House is an American historical drama television miniseries. Executive produced by Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman, the ensemble cast is led by Mary-Louise Parker, Amethyst Davis, Daisy Head, and Ben Vereen.
The series began streaming all 8 episodes on February 26, 2026, on Prime Video.
Contents
Premise
Based on a true story, the series is about a Union-aligned woman-led network of spies led by Elizabeth Van Lew in Richmond, Virginia during the American Civil War.
Cast
Main
Mary-Louise Parker as Eliza Van Lew/Baker
Daisy Head as Elizabeth Van Lew
Paul Anderson as Stokely Reeves
Amethyst Davis as Mary Jane Richards
Ian Duff as Jericho Bowser
Hannah James as Clara Parish
Robert Knepper as Bully Lumpkin
Christopher McDonald as Thomas McNiven
Colin Morgan as Hampton Arsenault
Rob Morrow as Judah Benjamin
Colin O'Donoghue as Captain William Lounsbury
Sam Trammell as Jefferson Davis
Keith David as Henry H. Garnet
Ben Vereen as Isham Worthy
Recurring
Ewan Miller as John Van Lew Jr.
Catherine Hannay as Laurette Van Lew
Oli Green as Paul Joseph Revere
Joshua McGuire as Erasmus Ross
Ben Cura as Timothy Webster
Michael Woods as Deputy Pike
Ella Schrey-Yeats as Katey
Blake Patrick Anderson as Obie Wise
Darrell Fetty as Duncan Broadnaxe
Charles Craddock as John Wilkes Booth
Catherine Carton as Talulah
John Ojeyemi as Mose Robinson
Geoffrey MacCarthy as Robert Ford
Thom Beers as John Winder
Bogdan Farcaș as John Caphart
Mark Perry as Henry Wise
Ionuț Grama as Sherrard Clemens
Laura Morgan as Varina Davis
Elizabeth J Cron as Charmaine Hobbs
Lindsay Forster as Mabel
Nia Samara as Sookie
Olivia Nita as Amanda Suggs
Aryel Tsoto as Tadpole
Production
The eight-part limited series has Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary as producers through Revelations Entertainment alongside Kevin Costner via Territory Pictures and Big Dreams Entertainment from Republic Pictures. The project was first reported in September 2022. Rod Lake, Howard Kaplan and Leslie Greif are also executive producers. Directed by Roland Joffé, filming took place in Romania from April through September 2023 with a cast including Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Vereen, Paul Anderson, Amethyst Davis, Daisy Head and Robert Knepper.
The soundtrack for the series includes an original song performed by Willie Nelson, which closes the series, as well as songs by Scott Stapp, Shania Twain, Killer Mike and Yolanda Adams and a Jon Bon Jovi co-written song performed by Adrienne Warren.
Release
The series was shown at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival on June 14, 2024. In September 2025, Amazon Prime Video acquired U.S. rights to the series, planning to release it sometime in early 2026. All episodes of the series were released on February 26, 2026.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 45% approval rating based on 11 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "An anachronistic retelling of forgotten heroes, The Gray House mostly disappoints with its lackluster writing, laughable characterizations, and misrepresented history." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 48 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Maggie Lovitt for Collider gave the series a 7/10 score. Lovitt did not care for the violence particularly towards Black people and women, finding it gratuitous, and did not like the historical embellishments, but complimented the general adherence to the spirit of the subject matter and the ensemble cast, particularly Paul Anderson's Stokely Reeves as the main villain.
Aramide Tinubu for Variety had a critical review stating, "Though sprawling and highly detailed, The Gray House becomes so clunky and overrun with extraneous characters and narratives that the women at its center nearly get lost in the chaos."