“Once upon a time, Pa, and Ma, and Mary, and Laura …”
That familiar introduction, delivered by a young Laura Ingalls (Alice Halsey), kicks off the first teaser for Netflix’s upcoming reimagining of Little House on the Prairie, a sweeping, emotional early look at the Ingalls family’s journey west ahead of the series premiere on July 9.
Set to Laura’s narration, the clip offers an intimate glimpse at the series, filled with imagery that has long shaped the heart of Little House: Laura running alongside the family’s trusted dog, Jack; Charles (Luke Bracey) playing his fiddle as a campfire roars; and Mary (Skywalker Hughes) caught in a sweet moment with a neighbor boy.
But those moments of warmth are only part of the story. The teaser hints at the hardships ahead: the family leaving their original home in Wisconsin, wary encounters with new faces, and Ma and Pa — aka Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald) and Charles — fighting back tears as they face an uncertain future.
That balance between hardship and hope is exactly where the series stakes its claim. As a freshly envisioned adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s semi-autobiographical books, the new Little House on the Prairie — already renewed for Season 2 — is an epic survival tale and an origin story of the 19th-century American West, all wrapped in a hopeful family drama.
“This show is a love story about a family. They’re a family you want to be with, you want to know, you want to spend time with,” showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine tells Tudum. “That’s really at the core of what Little House on the Prairie is about: a family that is there for each other, that tells stories to each other, tells stories about themselves.”
Like so many generations of readers and viewers before her, Sonnenshine found herself swept up in the Ingalls family’s world at a young age. “I fell deeply in love with these books when I was 5 years old. They inspired me to become a writer and a filmmaker, and I am honored and thrilled to be adapting these stories for a new audience.”
While much of the upcoming season remains under wraps, Sonnenshine provides a window into where the Ingalls’ story will begin. “The first season is inspired by Little House on the Prairie, which is actually the third book in the series,” she says. “The characters talk about their life before they came to the prairie — we might meet a few characters from their past.”
Since its original publication in the 1930s, the Little House book series has sold more than 73 million copies in more than 100 countries and has been translated into at least 27 languages. Although it’s been a half-century since the 1974 show first debuted, Nielsen reports that the nostalgic series garnered 13.25 billion minutes of viewing in 2024 alone.
Along with Sonnenshine, executive producers of the series include Joy Gorman Wettels for Joy Coalition and Trip Friendly for Friendly Family Productions. Friendly’s father, Ed Friendly, produced the Little House television films and series that were broadcast on NBC from 1974 to 1984. Little House on the Prairie is produced by CBS Studios and Anonymous Content.
“It has been a long-held dream of mine to carry on my father’s legacy and adapt Wilder’s classic American stories for a 21st-century audience in a way that brings together fans of both the books and the original television series,” says Friendly, who acts as CEO of Friendly Family Productions.
Little House on the Prairie joins Netflix’s slate of wholesome and heartwarming stories for fans to cozy up with, including Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias, My Life with the Walter Boys, and Ransom Canyon.
Pack up the wagon and settle in: Little House on the Prairie Season 1 arrives July 9, and check back here for more stories from the trail still to come in Season 2.
