Development On September 20, 2018, it was announced that
Apple had given a straight-to-series order consisting of eight episodes to a television miniseries adaptation of
William Landay's 2012 novel
Defending Jacob. The series was created by
Mark Bomback who also wrote the series and executive produced alongside
Chris Evans,
Morten Tyldum, Rosalie Swedlin, and Adam Shulman. Tyldum also directed the series as well. Production companies involved with the series consist of
Paramount Television and
Anonymous Content.
Casting Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that
Chris Evans had been cast in the series' lead role. In April 2019,
Cherry Jones,
Pablo Schreiber,
Betty Gabriel and
Sakina Jaffrey joined the cast of the series.
J. K. Simmons was revealed as part of the cast in a March 2020 trailer.
Filming Filming was confirmed to commence in
Newton,
Massachusetts––the city in which the novel takes place––in April 2019. Three locations were confirmed for filming: Cold Spring Park, the village of
Newton Highlands, and the
UMass Amherst Mount Ida Campus. Additional filming began in
Belmont, Massachusetts. Filming also began in
Salem, Massachusetts, on June 15, 2019, as well as at MCI Cedar Junction in
Walpole, Massachusetts, on June 17, 2019, and in
Lowell, Massachusetts, by the
UMass Lowell Tsongas Arena on June 19, 2019. Filming took place at River's Edge in
Medford, Massachusetts, on June 21, 2019. Filming also commenced on June 28, 2019, in
Worcester, Massachusetts, and on July 8, 2019, in
Watertown, Massachusetts, where the facade of the old Watertown Police Station appears as the Newton Police Station in the series. Filming took place on July 9, 2019, at the
Town Diner in Watertown. On July 18, 2019, they filmed at C&M Pizza in Leominster, Massachusetts. Neighborhood scenes were filmed in
Needham, Massachusetts. The scenes in
Mexico were filmed on September 25, 2019, at the Grand Velas hotel in
Nuevo Vallarta, in the state of
Nayarit. Scenes were filmed also in
Waltham on the property of Northgate Gardens Condominium. ==Reception==