Christina Applegate Heads to Netflix for New Death-Themed Comedy

Christina Applegate is reuniting with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, this time for a dark Netflix comedy titled Dead to Me.

The series was written by Liz Feldman (2 Broke Girls, One Big Happy) and will be executive produced by Applegate. It comes from McKay and Ferrell’s Gloria Sanchez Productions and is described as a comedic version of HBO’s Big Little Lies, notes Deadline.

Applegate will star as Jen, a strong woman with a twisted sense of humor and an anger problem she tries to ignore. The series starts after her husband is killed in a hit and run, and sees her try to keep her life together. She surprisingly strikes up a relationship with a free spirit who has a secret. That role has not been cast yet.

Applegate, Ferrell and McKay previously worked together on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. All three are joined by Feldman and Jessica Elbaum as executive producers. Production will kick off in Los Angeles this fall.

Dead to Me will run 10 episodes and follows Netflix’s interest in dark comedies starring top-shelf talent. The streaming giant is also home to the zombie comedy Santa Clarita Diet with Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant.

Applegate is a three-time Golden Globe nominee for her roles in ABC’s Samantha Who? (2007-2009) and Jesse (1998). She also has an Emmy win for her guest role in Friends.

Since her breakout role on Married… With Children (1987-1997), Applegate has always been an in-demand comedy star. However, Dead to Me will be her first TV Show since NBC’s short-lived Up All Night, which ran for two seasons from 2011 to 2012. Since then, she has focused on films, appearing in the two Bad Moms movies as Gwendolyn, and Youth In Oregon (2016), Crash Pad (2017) and Vacation (2015).

Back in 2016, Applegate signed on to star in Your Time Is Up, a dramedy family saga written by Kathleen Robertson. Since Deadline reported on the project at the time, there has been no further development.

In a recent interview with ABC News, Applegate said she has interest in social media, but only because she is a nonconformist.

“I don’t have an Instagram or anything like that, I have Twitter for work and also to read my news,” the actress said. “I don’t know if I could do it. I really don’t. It’s so outside of my structure and I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. But I’ve always kind of been that way, a sort of nonconformist.”

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