Sir Mark Rylance has confirmed he is set to reprise the role of Thomas Cromwell in a TV adaptation of The Mirror And The Light.
The actor, 62, won a Bafta TV award for his turn in the 2015 adaptation of Dame Hilary Mantel’s first two novels in the historical series – Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.
Appearing on BBC Radio 2, he said Peter Kosminsky will return to direct the final instalment and the scripts are almost finished.
The Oscar-winner added he hopes production will begin in 2023.
He told host Dermot O’Leary: “They are working on it. They have got the drafts of the six scripts.
“I haven’t seen them yet but they are all in draft form and the wonderful Peter Kosminsky is developing it with the producers.
“They are just in the stage of starting to share it with me. So that is hopefully something next year we will make.”
The original BBC Two show, which merged Mantel’s Booker Prize winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, starred Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII.
It was a critical hit and pulled in an average audience of more than four million viewers.
Mantel's third book, The Mirror And The Light, was published in March 2020 and continued the story of Cromwell’s rise to the heart of Henry VIII’s court as his closest adviser, before his fall from grace and public execution in 1540.
The Wolf Hall trilogy has also been adapted for the stage, starring Ben Miles as Cromwell.
