The Busy Afterlife of "Lincoln in the Bardo"

By Ed Epstein

Washington, D.C.

Friday, February 27, 2026

Author George Saunders best-selling and award-winning 2017 novel Lincoln in the Bardo, about President Abraham Lincoln's love and overwhelming feeling of loss over the 1862 death of his 11-year-old son Willie from typhoid fever, is being turned into a feature movie starring one of Hollywood's biggest stars and an elaborate Metropolitan Opera production that will premiere in October.

Willie Lincoln

Saunders work, which takes place over a single night in Washington's Oak Hill Cemetery, tells of Lincoln's visit to the cemetery, where Willie is stuck in the bardo, the halfway point between his earthly existence and the afterlife. The novel, which topped best-seller lists and won the 2017 Booker Prize as the best novel of the year, has been described as incredibly sad and moving and hilarious.

The movie is slated to star Tom Hanks, according to the online publication Deadline. That's only fitting since the 69-year-old Hanks is distantly related to Lincoln—he is a second cousin five times removed of Nancy Hanks, Lincoln's mother.

Saunders, who teaches creative writing at Syracuse University, is writing the screenplay for the movie, which Hanks is producing. Filming will take place in London.

The opera was originally scheduled to debut at the Los Angeles Opera, but that plan was scrapped because of financial problems. Instead, the opera will open in New York's Lincoln Center on October 19 and run through November 14.

Music has been composed by 45-year-old Missy Mazzoli, a composer of chamber, orchestral, and operatic works. The librettist is Royce Vavrek, a Canadian-born playwright and librettist who has collaborated before with Mazzoli. Swedish baritone Peter Mattei is scheduled to sing the role of Lincoln, whose high-pitched voice made him a tenor, not a baritone.

Tickets for the production will go on sale to the general public in June, according to the Metropolitan Opera. More information is available at https://www.metopera.org/about/press-releases/the-metropolitan-operas-2026-27-season/.

William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln was the third of four sons born to Abaham and Mary Todd Lincoln. He and his younger brother Tad were known for the mischief-making in the White House, which never seemed to upset their indulgent father. Tad's death plunged both of his parents into deep grief.

After his death, Willie was entombed at Oak Hill, in Washington's Georgetown Cemetery. It is said that his father visited him there frequently, giving rise to Saunders' imaginative story.

After President Lincoln's assassination, Willie's body was removed to Oak Ridge Cemetery, where he is in the Lincoln family tomb along with his parents and brothers Eddie and Tad.

Robert Todd Lincoln, the president's eldest son, is entombed at Arlington National Cemetery. He was the only one of the sons to live into adulthood and died at age 82 in 1926.

Image from the National Park Service