- - Is 'Hamnet' a true story? What's fact, fiction in the Shakespeare film

Patrick Ryan, USA TODAYJanuary 25, 2026 at 11:15 PM

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No, Chloé Zhao did not misspell the name "Hamlet."

In the opening title card of her Oscar-nominated movie "Hamnet" (in theaters now), the director dutifully explains that both names were interchangeable because of a lack of standardized spelling in the Elizabethan era.

It's one of the many things you might learn from "Hamnet," which dramatizes the marriage between playwright William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley), and how they cope with the loss of their young son (Jacobi Jupe). The tear-jerker is up for eight Oscars, including best picture, and is based on the 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell, who also co-wrote the screenplay.

Here is what's real and not in the historical fiction movie:

Spoilers! Jessie Buckley 'destroyed' her voice for this harrowing 'Hamnet' scene

Are Agnes Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway the same person?

"Hamnet" aims to rewrite the narrative around Shakespeare's wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley).

Yes. As depicted in the book and movie, Agnes was Shakespeare’s wife – although she has been more commonly referred to throughout history as Anne Hathaway.

Richard Hathaway, a wealthy farmer, “is known to have had seven children, and none of them was named Anne,” historian Lena Cowen Orlin told History.com. “He did, however, refer to a daughter named Agnes in his will,” which was frequently interchangeable with Anne during that time.

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Oscars are here! See which actors, directors and films are nominated for the 98th Academy Awards, to be handed out live March 15 and broadcast on ABC and Hulu.

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Oscars are here! See which actors, directors and films are nominated for the 98th Academy Awards, to be handed out live March 15 and broadcast on ABC and Hulu.

O’Farrell chose to use the name Agnes in her novel, because if “anyone would know her name it would be her father,” the author told the BBC. "It just felt really emblematic to me that on top of everything else, we haven't even got her name right."

Did Will and Agnes really have an unhappy marriage?

Agnes (Jessie Buckley, left) and Will (Paul Mescal) embark on a passionate romance when "Hamnet" begins.

Very little is known about Hathaway, although over the years, a number of Shakespeare scholars have perpetuated a rather harsh narrative around her based largely on speculation.

Because she was 26 when she married an 18-year-old Shakespeare, biographers have claimed they had a “shotgun wedding” because she was pregnant. Other historians have pushed the idea that she was “illiterate” and “nagging,” and that the reason Shakespeare worked in London was to escape their loveless, “disastrous” relationship.

But new research published last year by scholar Matthew Steggle suggests that the Bard was hardly an absent husband, and according to an old letter, Hathaway may have lived with him in London as he was writing “Hamlet” and “Othello.”

How did Hamnet actually die?

Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe, left), Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and Judith (Olivia Lynes) perform their father's plays in "Hamnet."

Shakespeare and Hathaway had three kids: daughter Susanna, born in 1583; and twins Hamnet and Judith, born two years later. Susanna and Judith both lived well into old age for the time, although as seen in the film, Hamnet died at age 11.

According to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which conserves his homes and collections, "The cause of death was not routinely recorded in the parish records, so Hamnet’s death is unknown and it is not clear whether his father was able to attend his funeral" in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The most common theory ‒ as seen in the movie ‒ is that young Hamnet died of the bubonic plague, which was prevalent in England at the time. But it's also possible that his death was an accident: The 2018 movie "All Is True" co-stars Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench as Shakespeare and his wife, and imagines that Hamnet drowned in a pond.

When was ‘Hamlet’ first performed at the Globe Theatre?

Both the book and movie “Hamnet” end with Agnes coming to the Globe to see a production of “Hamlet.”

Biographers have concluded that “Hamlet” was first performed in 1600 or 1601, roughly four to five years after Hamnet died in 1596. Although there is no definitive evidence that Shakespeare wrote the play to memorialize his son, it’s not a stretch to imagine that the story’s themes of grief and memory weighed heavily on Shakespeare in the years following his son’s death.

The play was initially performed by Shakespeare’s acting company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and Richard Burbage was the first person to play Hamlet, the mourning prince of Denmark who is out for vengeance after his father’s murder.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Hamnet' true story ‒ The history behind the Shakespeare movie

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