It Took 30 Years to Make The Queen’s Gambit Because Everyone Hated the Idea
When The Queen’s Gambit landed on Netflix in October 2020, it felt like an overnight surprise. A seven-episode limited series about competitive chess, set in the 1950s and 1960s, with long stretches of near-silence and intense focus at the board, does not sound like obvious mass-appeal TV. Yet it caught on fast, becoming the most-watched scripted limited series Netflix had released at the time.
More than 62 million households checked it out in its first month. What viewers never saw was how long it took to get there. For nearly 30 years, the project bounced around Hollywood, repeatedly turned down by studios that could not see an audience for it.
Decades of Rejection and Rewrites
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The series is based on the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, a tightly written story about Beth Harmon, an orphan whose life unfolds through chess tournaments, addiction, and emotional isolation.
In the late 1980s, Scottish writer and producer Allan Scott read the book and immediately saw its potential as a screen adaptation. He purchased an option on the rights and began pitching it around Hollywood at a time when chess-driven narratives were considered commercially weak.
From the start, Scott encountered the same objection. Studio executives struggled to see how chess could sustain audience attention without being reshaped into something louder or more conventional. Over the years, Scott renewed the rights, rewrote the script repeatedly, and explored different formats.
By the early 1990s, he had secured exclusive rights to adapt the novel into a feature film. That version stalled repeatedly, even as interest flickered in short bursts.
By Scott’s own account, the script went through nine major rewrites over nearly 30 years. At least eight directors came and went, with each version stalling because of shifting priorities, funding problems, or ongoing doubts about the material. Chess was always the main concern, often dismissed as too static to hold dramatic tension on screen.
The project came closest to moving ahead in the mid-2000s, when actor Heath Ledger showed interest in directing a film adaptation. Ledger had personal experience with competitive chess and felt a strong connection to the story.
Development moved forward until his death in 2008, which abruptly ended that version. With him gone, the project lost both its director and its momentum, slipping back into uncertainty after decades of work.
A Shift in Format Changed Everything
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By the 2010s, limited series had become a workable space for character-driven stories that struggled in film. Scott partnered with Scott Frank, whose past work showed he could handle internal storytelling without turning it into spectacle.
They reworked The Queen’s Gambit as a self-contained series rather than a movie, which allowed Beth Harmon’s arc to unfold over time. Even at this stage, doubts about the material persisted.
Netflix’s involvement proved decisive because the company agreed to protect the story’s foundation. The chess games were filmed with full accuracy, and matches were treated as serious competitions built on real play rather than manufactured drama.
Casting and Execution
Image via Wikimedia Commons/Sara Komatsu
Casting Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon grounded the series. Her performance carried long stretches with little dialogue, using controlled movement and expression to hold tension.
The production emphasized period detail, from costumes to set design, which gave the chess scenes visual clarity without changing how the game worked.
When the series premiered, Allan Scott was in the hospital recovering from COVID-19. As audiences around the world discovered the show, its producer watched from a hospital bed and initially thought the finished episodes were rough cuts he still needed to review.
The project he had been pitching since the late 1980s had become a global reference point.
Aftermath and Impact
The Queen’s Gambit went on to earn a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and sparked measurable interest in chess worldwide, from increased online play to renewed book sales.
For years, the prevailing belief had been that chess could not carry a mainstream screen project. The series did not disprove that belief by changing chess, but by finding a platform willing to let the story remain exactly what it was.
What took 30 years was not refining the idea, but waiting for an industry structure prepared to trust it.