Isabela Merced Takes On Lorena Bobbitt Opposite Patrick Schwarzenegger In Hulu’s ‘Good American Family’
The stars of ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘The White Lotus’ will lead the anthology’s second installment, revisiting a case that turned private trauma into a national media spectacle.
Hulu has found the leads for its next Good American Family chapter.
Isabela Merced will portray Lorena Bobbitt, with Patrick Schwarzenegger playing her former husband, John Bobbitt, in the second installment of the streamer’s true-crime anthology. Deadline first reported the casting November 2. The new installment remains untitled.
The assignment brings together two actors coming off prominent HBO roles: Merced as Dina in The Last of Us and Schwarzenegger as Saxon Ratliff in The White Lotus. Merced’s screen credits also include Superman, in which she plays Hawkgirl, and Dora and the Lost City of Gold.
For Merced, playing Lorena offers a substantial dramatic departure from franchise filmmaking. The role places her at the center of a story whose public telling became almost as consequential as the incident itself — a challenge involving both a recognizable real-life figure and decades of cultural baggage.
The season will revisit the Virginia couple’s 1993 case and the frenzy surrounding it. Hulu’s description emphasizes how the coverage converted trauma into entertainment, fueled crude humor and intensified divisions over gender. That framing suggests the production will examine the machinery of public judgment alongside the events that generated the headlines.
The Bobbitt story has already received several screen treatments. Prime Video’s 2019 documentary series Lorena, produced by Jordan Peele, reconsidered the case, while Lifetime followed with the 2020 film I Was Lorena Bobbitt. Hulu’s dramatization will enter that existing conversation with a new cast and the anthology’s focus on contested public narratives.
Produced by 20th Television, the next installment comes from creator Katie Robbins, with Ellen Pompeo continuing as an executive producer. The first season followed Natalia Grace and her adoptive family, with Pompeo starring alongside Mark Duplass and Imogen Faith Reid. According to Deadline’s reporting, that installment accumulated more than 140 million hours viewed globally on Hulu and Disney+.
The casting gives Hulu two recognizable young leads for a story that remains culturally charged more than three decades later. Its central creative test will be finding the people behind the notoriety — and examining how their lives became material for mass entertainment.
A premiere date has not been announced.
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