Maxton Hall — The World Between Us

Plot

Season 1

Ruby Bell, a brilliant and determined young woman, enters the opulent world of Maxton Hall on a scholarship. Her singular focus is securing a place at Oxford University, a stark contrast to the carefree extravagance of her wealthy classmates. Among them is James Beaufort, an arrogant heir, whose life revolves around privilege.

After forgetting to submit a document for her referral letter to Mr Sutton, a teacher at the school, she stumbles upon Lydia Beaufort having a secret affair with Mr. Sutton. Lydia thinks Ruby will expose her relationship, so she resorts to her brother James for help. James attempts to buy out Ruby, who in turn refuses all of his attempts.

Ruby then requests the school headmaster, Mr. Lexington, for the letter in place of Mr. Sutton since she no longer holds him in high regard as she did before. She informs Mr. Lexington that she is the chairman for the event organisation committee, so he makes a deal with Ruby that if she manages to pull off the upcoming event aimed to attract new potential students successfully, he would consider writing her letter.

Mr. Sutton breaks up with Lydia even after she begs him to keep things the way they are. The party progresses smoothly until the strippers James invited to ruin Ruby's event show up, since he believes that Ruby has underlying intentions to ruin the Beaufort family with Lydia's secret.

The headmaster is enraged and takes James off the lacrosse team and denies Ruby her letter. However, he is willing to reverse his decision if Ruby and James manage to throw a successful donor gala for the school. After the initial phase of animosity, Ruby and James begin to bond over the next few weeks with James helping out to the best of his ability.

James prepares for the 'Young Beaufort' line, an idea that Lydia had come up with and worked hard on for years. However, their father saw Lydia unfit to lead as future CEO. Unfortunately, the press conference clashes with the gala—which James had promised Ruby that he'd attend since it was her birthday as well. After an intense conversation with his father forcing him to go to the conference, James makes a decision in the spur of the moment when rehearsing lines with Lydia in the car, and decides to go to the gala.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Main

Damian Hardung as James Beaufort: a legacy student at Maxton Hall, Ruby's boyfriend, Lydia's twin brother

Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby Bell: a scholarship student at Maxton Hall, preparing for Oxford, James' girlfriend

Recurring

Sonja Weißer as Lydia Beaufort: a legacy student at Maxton Hall, James' twin sister, Graham's girlfriend

Eidin Jalali as Graham Sutton: Teacher at Maxton Hall, Lydia's boyfriend

Fedja van Huêt as Mortimer Beaufort: James and Lydia's father, Cordelia's husband

Justus Riesner as Alistair Ellington: a student at Maxton Hall, Elaine's brother, James' best friend, Keshav's boyfriend

Thomas Douglas as Professor Lexington

Andrea Guo as Lin Wang: a student at Maxton Hall, Ruby's best friend

Runa Greiner as Ember Bell: Ruby's sister, Helen and Angus' daughter

Martin Neuhaus as Angus Bell: Ruby and Ember's father, Helen's husband

Julia-Maria Köhler as Helen Bell: Ruby and Ember's mother, Angus' wife

Gina Henkel replaced Maria Köhler

Ben Felipe as Cyril Vega: a student at Maxton Hall, James' friend, Lydia's one-sided admirer

Govinda Gabriel Cholleti as Keshav "Kesh" Patel: a student at Maxton Hall, Alistair's boyfriend, James' friend

Clelia Sarto as Cordelia Beaufort: James and Lydia's mother, Mortimer's wife

Eli Riccardi as Elaine Ellington: a student at Maxton Hall, Alistair's sister, James's one-sided admirer

Production

The six-part series, directed by Martin Schreier and Tarek Roehlinger, was recorded in 2022. The series is produced by Markus Brunnemann and Valentin Debler, and executive produced by Ceylan Yildirim for UFA Fiction. Daphne Ferraro is the head writer.

The cast is led by Damian Hardung as James and Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby, and also includes Sonja Weißer, Ben Felipe, Fedja van Huêt, Runa Greiner, Justus Riesner, Clelia Sarto, Andrea Guo, Eidin Jalali.

Filming took place mainly in Germany between the beginning of July and the end of September 2022. The filming location for the private school Maxton Hall was the Marienburg Castle. In Potsdam, Brandenburg's state capital and UNESCO city of film, scenes were shot at the Old Market Square: The St. Nicholas Church represents the University of Oxford and the Museum Barberini serves as the London representative of the Beaufort company. The Potsdam City Palace can also be seen. Party scenes were filmed at a villa in the Neubabelsberg villa colony, Ruby's family house is located in the New Garden. The Beaufort family seat is represented by the manor house Ganz in Kyritz. In England, small scenes were filmed in London and Oxford.

The series was renewed for a second season in May 2024 after achieving the largest ever first week global viewership for an international original on Amazon Prime Video. Filming for season the second season took place in Berlin and London in the summer of 2024 with Tarek Roehlinger and Martin Schreier

returning as directors.

In June 2025, ahead of the premiere of the second season, the series was renewed for a third and final season.

Release

The first season premiered on May 9, 2024 on Amazon Prime Video. The second season premiered on November 7, 2025. The third and final season is scheduled to premiere on December 9, 2026.

Reception

For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 70% critics rating based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10.