Tom Holland’s long-awaited Fred Astaire biopic has just taken a major step forward, and the new casting choices could reveal more about the story the film actually wants to tell. After years of development, the Sony project has added Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter alongside Holland, bringing two crucial figures from Astaire’s extraordinary career into focus.
The casting is especially intriguing because this is not shaping up to be a simple Hollywood story about Astaire and Ginger Rogers. At its heart is another partnership that came long before the famous movie musicals: Fred Astaire and his older sister, Adele.
Margaret Qualley joins Tom Holland as Adele Astaire
Margaret Qualley will portray Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire’s older sister and original dance partner, while Sabrina Carpenter will play Ginger Rogers, Astaire’s most famous Hollywood dance partner.
The film is being directed by Paul King, the filmmaker behind Paddington and Wonka. The screenplay is being written by King and Steven Levenson, based on Kathleen Riley’s 2012 biography The Astaires: Fred & Adele.
Riley is also serving as a script and story consultant, giving the film a direct connection to the biography that documents the Astaire siblings’ careers.
The focus on Adele is important because her story is much bigger than being a footnote in Fred Astaire’s rise to fame.
Fred and Adele began performing together as children before developing a major career across vaudeville, Broadway and London’s West End. During the 1920s, they became an international musical phenomenon, with Riley’s biography examining their importance to the development of musical theatre during the Jazz Age.
Adele’s professional story also stands on its own. Her partnership with Fred eventually ended after she married in 1932, after which Fred continued toward the Hollywood career that would make him one of cinema’s most recognisable dancers.
Paul King has previously highlighted the unusual challenge involved in bringing Adele’s legacy to the screen.
“thrilled and honored to have been entrusted with telling the story”
King also pointed to the fact that Adele’s dancing was not preserved on film. That means the filmmakers cannot simply rely on surviving footage to recreate her performances and will instead have to bring a largely unseen stage legacy back to life.
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Sabrina Carpenter will portray Ginger Rogers
While Qualley takes on the role of Adele, Sabrina Carpenter will portray Ginger Rogers, the performer whose partnership with Fred Astaire became one of classic Hollywood’s defining screen collaborations.
Astaire and Rogers first appeared together on screen in Flying Down to Rio. Their partnership continued through a series of films, including The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, Swing Time and The Barkleys of Broadway.
Those movies helped establish both performers as enduring figures in dance and musical cinema.
Carpenter also arrives with a substantial performance background of her own. She is a two-time Grammy winner and recently received her first Primetime Emmy nomination for her work as an executive producer and performer on The Muppet Show.
Her acting credits include The Hate U Give, Work It and The Short History of the Long Road.
Her casting gives the film a chance to explore another defining chapter of Astaire’s career after establishing the importance of his relationship with Adele.
Key cast and creative team
| Role / Position | Name | Details |
| Fred Astaire | Tom Holland | Lead role; attached to the project since 2021 |
| Adele Astaire | Margaret Qualley | Fred’s older sister and original dance partner |
| Ginger Rogers | Sabrina Carpenter | Astaire’s most famous Hollywood dance partner |
| Director | Paul King | Director of Paddington and Wonka |
| Writers | Paul King and Steven Levenson | Adapting Riley’s biography |
| Source material | Kathleen Riley | The Astaires: Fred & Adele |
| Script/story consultant | Kathleen Riley | Consultant on the adaptation |
| Producers | Amy Pascal, Rachel O’Connor, Ben Holden, Josh Hyams | Production team |
| Production banners | Billy17 and Lightbulb Pictures | Holland and producing team |
| Executive producers | Harry Holland, Will South, Will Clarke, Andy Mayson, Steven Levenson | Billy17, Altitude Films and production team |
| Family involvement | Ava Astaire McKenzie, Tyler McKenzie | Support, consultation and co-production |
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Why Tom Holland is such a natural fit for Fred Astaire
Holland’s connection to the role goes well beyond his global fame as Spider-Man.
Before becoming an international star, Holland performed in London’s West End production of Billy Elliot The Musical. He played the title character from 2008 to 2010, gaining years of experience with demanding dance-driven stage performances.
Holland has also spoken about wanting to return to dance for the Astaire project.
In 2023, while discussing the film’s development, he said:
“I’d love to put my tap shoes on again and to portray that character”
At the time, Holland explained that scripts were being worked on and meetings were taking place, while the Hollywood strikes had affected the production process.
The project has therefore been developing for years, dating back to Holland’s initial involvement in 2021.
Now, with Qualley and Carpenter officially joining, the film has a considerably clearer shape.
Paul King is bringing the Astaire story to the screen
Paul King remains attached to direct the untitled Sony film.
His previous work includes Paddington and Wonka, giving him experience with musical sequences, heightened visual worlds and performances driven by movement.
King and Steven Levenson are writing the screenplay, while Riley remains connected to the project as a script and story consultant.
The production team includes Amy Pascal and Rachel O’Connor, with Ben Holden and Josh Hyams producing for Lightbulb Pictures and Holland producing through his Billy17 banner.
Harry Holland and Will South are executive producing for Billy17. Will Clarke and Andy Mayson are executive producing for Altitude Films, while Steven Levenson is also an executive producer.
There is also significant involvement from Astaire’s family.
Fred Astaire’s daughter, Ava Astaire McKenzie, has lent her support to the project, while her son Tyler McKenzie is serving as a consultant and co-producer.
Astaire McKenzie said she was:
“delighted to support this endeavor to celebrate the extraordinary careers”
of her father and aunt, Fred and Adele.
She also said the project was built on Riley’s biography and praised the creative team assembled to bring their story to a new generation.
The Fred Astaire biopic has a complicated history
The latest casting news comes with an important piece of background involving Fred Astaire’s legacy.
In November 2025, TMZ reported that Robyn Astaire, Fred Astaire’s widow, sent a legal letter to producer Amy Pascal objecting to the biopic.
According to TMZ’s report, Robyn said Fred had expressly stated in his will that he did not want his life story portrayed on screen. She also said she had not authorised or endorsed the project and reportedly warned against suggesting that she had approved it, while threatening legal action over any such implication.
That reported claim needs to be separated from what is independently established about Astaire’s will.
A 1988 Los Angeles Times report said the terms of Astaire’s will had never been made public. The report also said Robyn had described the document as reflecting Fred’s wish for privacy after his death.
At the same time, Ava Astaire McKenzie is supporting the current project, according to Deadline.
The public positions attributed to surviving members of Astaire’s family are therefore not uniform.
The latest information does not indicate that the earlier dispute has been resolved through a publicly announced legal agreement, nor does it report a change in Robyn Astaire’s position.
For that reason, the current status of the film is best described through its confirmed casting and production details rather than assumptions about the legal or estate situation.
Margaret Qualley has an unusual history with an Astaire biopic
Qualley’s casting comes with another fascinating twist.
Before joining Holland’s project as Adele Astaire, Qualley had been attached to a separate Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers biopic called Fred & Ginger.
In that project, Qualley was set to portray Ginger Rogers opposite Jamie Bell as Astaire.
Fred & Ginger was developed separately from Holland’s movie. It is directed by Jonathan Entwistle and written by Arash Amel, and Black Bear currently lists Bell and Qualley in its cast while describing the film as a story centred on the relationship between Astaire and Rogers.
Qualley even discussed the separate project with Deadline in 2022, saying she hoped it would happen soon.
Her move from a planned Ginger Rogers portrayal in one Astaire project to playing Adele Astaire in another is therefore a particularly notable casting development.
The two films have distinctly different premises.
Holland’s movie is based on Riley’s The Astaires: Fred & Adele and places substantial emphasis on Fred’s relationship with his sister. Fred & Ginger, by contrast, focuses on Astaire and Rogers.
Margaret Qualley brings her own dance background to Adele
Qualley also has a background that makes her casting as Adele especially interesting.
She earned Emmy nominations for Fosse/Verdon and Maid, while her film credits include Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness, Drive-Away Dolls, Sanctuary, The Substance and The Dog Stars.
Her performance in The Substance earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
Her dance experience gives her another connection to a role built around performance, movement and stagecraft.
More importantly, playing Adele allows Qualley to portray a figure whose own career has frequently been overshadowed by Fred’s later Hollywood fame and his legendary partnership with Rogers.
King’s comments about Adele’s undocumented-on-film dancing suggest that the movie intends to give that earlier chapter meaningful attention rather than simply rushing toward Fred’s Hollywood success.
When will Tom Holland’s Fred Astaire movie be released?
For now, there is still no announced release date for the untitled Fred Astaire biopic.
The project has been in development since Holland’s initial announcement in 2021. King became attached as director in 2023, and Holland later provided updates about the script and production process.
The latest casting announcement establishes the film’s central trio:
- Tom Holland as Fred Astaire
- Margaret Qualley as Adele Astaire
- Sabrina Carpenter as Ginger Rogers
The movie now has a creative team led by King, with Levenson co-writing and Riley’s The Astaires: Fred & Adele serving as the source material.
With Ava Astaire McKenzie supporting the project and Tyler McKenzie involved as a consultant and co-producer, the production also has a direct connection to Astaire’s family, even as the publicly reported positions surrounding the project are not uniform.
Conclusion
Tom Holland’s Fred Astaire biopic is finally beginning to look like a fully formed film after years of development.
Margaret Qualley’s casting as Adele Astaire puts Fred’s original dance partnership at the centre of the story, while Sabrina Carpenter’s arrival as Ginger Rogers brings the iconic Hollywood chapter of Astaire’s career into the picture. Holland, meanwhile, brings his own history as a dancer and West End performer to the title role.
Paul King and Steven Levenson are adapting Kathleen Riley’s The Astaires: Fred & Adele, with Riley serving as a script and story consultant. The project also has support from Ava Astaire McKenzie, while the earlier reported objection from Robyn Astaire remains an important part of the film’s complicated history.
No release date has been announced yet. But after years of development, the combination of Holland, Qualley and Carpenter gives this long-awaited Astaire project a much clearer identity — one that could place Fred and Adele’s remarkable early partnership alongside the Hollywood legacy that followed.
Tom Holland isn’t the only star stepping into an iconic role this year. Elsewhere, a familiar face is heading back into a beloved crime saga for another wild ride through Hollywood’s past. For more, read our story on Brad Pitt Returns as Cliff Booth in The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth as David Fincher Takes Tarantino’s Hollywood Into 1977
Source and research disclaimer
This article has been prepared based on thorough research of the sources provided with the original material, including Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Oxford Academic, The Los Angeles Times, TMZ, Black Bear and BroadwayWorld. It reflects the information available from those sources and the verified material supplied for this article. Reported claims, historical information and confirmed production details have been distinguished where appropriate, and no independent verification beyond the provided source material is implied.
Sources
- Deadline – Margaret Qualley & Sabrina Carpenter Join Tom Holland In Fred Astaire Biopic
- Variety – Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter Join Tom Holland in Fred Astaire Biopic
- The Hollywood Reporter – Margaret Qualley, Sabrina Carpenter Join Tom Holland’s Fred Astaire Biopic
- Oxford Academic – The Astaires: Fred & Adele by Kathleen Riley
- The Los Angeles Times – Astaire’s Last Partner Copes With Life After Fred
- TMZ – Fred Astaire’s Widow Sends Threatening Legal Letter to Sony Biopic Producers
- Black Bear – Fred & Ginger
- BroadwayWorld – Tom Holland Says Scripts Are Being Written for Fred Astaire Biopic
Featured Image Credit: Instagram / tomholland2013
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