Aimee Lou Wood, fresh off scene-stealing turns in Sex Education and The White Lotus, has been cast as the lead in a new TV adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. And while Wood is a genuinely talented actor, I can't shake the feeling we're watching Hollywood's public domain addiction reach new heights.

Let's count: Ruth Wilson's 2006 BBC version is still definitive for most people. Mia Wasikowska gave us the 2011 film. Going back further, we have Joan Fontaine, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and approximately 40 other versions.

So what does another Jane Eyre bring to the table?

To be fair to Wood, she's an inspired choice for the role. Jane Eyre requires an actor who can convey interior strength and fierce independence while working within the constraints of Victorian society. Wood proved in Sex Education that she can play characters with emotional depth and surprising steel beneath a vulnerable exterior.

But casting isn't the same as justification. Unless this adaptation is doing something radically different with Brontë's novel—and nothing in the announcement suggests it is—we're just getting another prestige period drama that will look lovely, hit all the expected beats, and disappear into the streaming void.

This is the second major Brontë adaptation announced this month, following Netflix's Pride and Prejudice. Wait, that's Austen. Point stands: streamers are strip-mining 19th-century literature because it's free IP with name recognition.