Showrunner Bekah Brunstetter Explains Key Changes in Peacock's 'The Five‑Star Weekend' Adaptation

Peacock premiered the miniseries "The Five‑Star Weekend" on July 9, adapting Elin Hilderbrand’s 2023 novel about a widowed food influencer, Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner), who hosts a girls’ weekend on Nantucket. Showrunner Bekah Brunstetter told reporters the team deliberately deepened the story, saying, "We were just trying to go deeper, even deeper than the depth that [Hilderbrand] already explored." Major adjustments include making the novel’s central twist—Gigi Ling’s (Gemma Chan) affair with Hollis’s late husband, Matthew—public earlier, with friend Brooke (D’Arcy Carden) discovering the secret and sharing it with the group, rather than withholding it from Hollis until the finale. The show also re‑imagines other relationship dynamics, such as the kiss between Brooke and Gigi, and adds new layers to characters to highlight female friendship across life stages. Brunstetter noted that Jennifer Garner’s input helped shape Hollis’s arc, and the creators hope to extend the narrative into additional seasons with the same ensemble cast.