Hershey (2026) is a biographical drama from Angel Studios about the man behind America’s best-known chocolate bar. Finn Wittrock stars as Milton S. Hershey and Alexandra Daddario plays his wife, Catherine “Kitty” Hershey. The supporting cast includes Succession star Alan Ruck, Richard Kind and Breaking Bad’s David Costabile.
The film is directed by Mark Waters, best known for Mean Girls and Freaky Friday. It spans nearly five decades, from the early 1870s to the late 1910s. It follows a candymaker who failed again and again before he cracked mass-produced milk chocolate, and a marriage that turned a fortune into one of the largest educational endowments in America.
Hershey opens in US theaters on November 25, 2026, the day before Thanksgiving. It arrives in the same year as America’s 250th anniversary, the timing its makers aimed for from the start.
Here’s everything to know about the cast, story, true history, Pennsylvania filming locations and release plans.
About Hershey (2026)
Milton Hershey wasn’t an overnight success. He was a Mennonite farm boy from Pennsylvania who left school early, apprenticed with a confectioner, and saw several candy businesses collapse before one finally worked. The film follows that long climb, from his Derry Township beginnings to the factory town that still carries his name.
At the center of it is his marriage to Kitty. The filmmakers have said the love story between Milton and Catherine is the core of the movie. Kitty supports Milton as he hunts for the right chocolate recipe. When she falls ill, his optimism starts to crack. She then pushes him toward a bigger dream: leaving their fortune to America’s orphans.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Release date (US) | November 25, 2026 (theaters only) |
| Genre | Biographical drama, family, history |
| Director | Mark Waters |
| Screenplay | Sharon Paul, Timothy Michael Hayes |
| Producers | Sharon Paul, Mark Tilghman, Mary Aloe, Joshua Harris, Will Hardy |
| Cinematography | Ed Wu |
| Editor | Travis Sittard |
| Music | Rolfe Kent |
| Production companies | Dandelion Media, Hershey Entities, Aloe Entertainment, Peachtree Group, RCM3, The Hershey Company |
| Distributor | Angel Studios |
| Runtime | About 1 hr 50 min |
| Rating | PG (some thematic elements and brief language) |
| Filmed in | Pennsylvania, USA |
The film doesn’t treat chocolate as the real achievement. The bigger story is what the couple did with the money. They couldn’t have children of their own, so they built a home and school for children who had nothing.
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From Boardroom to Big Screen: The Story Behind the Film
Hershey isn’t a typical studio biopic, because the company it’s about helped make it. Dandelion Media produced the film in partnership with other Entities on the same name. That group includes The Hershey Company, Milton Hershey School, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, the M.S. Hershey Foundation and Trust Company.
The project was announced in April 2025 with Waters directing and Wittrock and Daddario attached to star. At that point it had no distributor. In May 2025, Alan Ruck, Richard Kind, David Costabile and Heléne Yorke joined the cast.
Angel Studios later picked up the film. It revealed Hershey at CinemaCon in April 2026 as part of a five-film theatrical slate. Angel brands its releases as values-based family entertainment, and a founder’s story about hard work and generosity fits that well.
The Hershey Company’s leadership has framed the film as a story about purpose rather than candy. The point, they say, is less the iconic brand and more the lasting good done through Milton Hershey School.
Composer Rolfe Kent scored the film. He’s a frequent Waters collaborator whose credits include Mean Girls and Sideways. The film was also selected for a gala presentation at the 2026 Haifa International Film Festival ahead of its US release.
Is Hershey based on a True Story?
Yes. Unlike many period dramas, this film is built on real people and real events. Here’s the history the film draws from:
| Year | What really happened |
|---|---|
| 1857 | Milton Snavely Hershey is born on September 13 in Derry Township, Pennsylvania |
| 1883 | After earlier failures, he returns to Lancaster and starts the Lancaster Caramel Company |
| Early 1890s | The caramel business employs more than 1,300 workers across two factories |
| 1898 | Milton marries Catherine “Kitty” Sweeney, an Irish-American Catholic from Jamestown, New York |
| 1900 | He sells the caramel company for $1 million to focus on chocolate. The first Hershey bars go on sale that year |
| 1905 | Construction of the chocolate factory is completed in what becomes Hershey, Pennsylvania |
| 1909 | Milton and Kitty found the Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys |
| 1915 | Kitty dies on March 25 after a long illness |
| 1918 | Milton transfers most of his fortune into the school’s trust |
| 1945 | Milton Hershey dies on October 13, aged 88 |
The Hershey Industrial School is now Milton Hershey School. It’s a free private K–12 school that still provides housing and education to children from low-income families, and its trust is one of the wealthiest educational endowments in the US.
Some of the drama is rooted in documented history. Milton’s marriage reportedly surprised his family. Kitty and her mother-in-law, Fanny Hershey, didn’t get along, while Milton’s father, Henry, was delighted with her. Both parents appear in the film. Alan Ruck plays Henry and Francesca Faridany plays Fanny.
Hershey Cast
| Actor | Character | You may know them from |
|---|---|---|
| Finn Wittrock | Milton S. Hershey | American Horror Story, The Big Short, Unbroken |
| Alexandra Daddario | Catherine “Kitty” Hershey | The White Lotus, Percy Jackson, San Andreas |
| Alan Ruck | Henry Hershey | Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Succession |
| Richard Kind | Joseph Royer | Spin City, Mad About You, Inside Out (voice) |
| David Costabile | Tobias Thornhill | Breaking Bad, Billions |
| Heléne Yorke | Margaret | The Other Two, Masters of Sex |
| Francesca Faridany | Veronica “Fanny” Hershey | – |
| Daniel David Stewart | Murrie | – |
| Michael Moreland Milligan | Lebbie | – |
| Dina Spybey | Aunt Mattie | – |
Finn Wittrock as Milton S. Hershey
Wittrock carries the film as a dreamer who keeps getting knocked down and keeps getting back up. Fans know him best from several seasons of American Horror Story. He has also appeared in The Big Short, Unbroken, La La Land and Judy. Playing a real man across almost 50 years of his life is one of his biggest leading roles yet.
Alexandra Daddario as Catherine “Kitty”
Daddario plays the woman the film credits with Milton’s greatest legacy. She broke out as Annabeth Chase in the Percy Jackson films. More recently she earned acclaim in the first season of The White Lotus. Kitty loved fashion, and the production reflected that: Daddario wore 54 different costumes to track her style through each decade.
Alan Ruck and Francesca Faridany as Henry and Fanny
Milton’s parents are played by Alan Ruck and Francesca Faridany. Ruck is forever Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and more recently Connor Roy in Succession. The real Henry Hershey was a restless dreamer. The real Fanny was a strict Mennonite. That tension shaped the son who inherited a bit of both.
Richard Kind as Joseph Royer
Richard Kind plays Joseph Royer, the name of the Lancaster confectioner Milton apprenticed with as a teenager. Kind is one of TV’s most recognizable character actors, from Mad About You and Spin City to the voice of Bing Bong in Pixar’s Inside Out.
David Costabile as Tobias Thornhill
Costabile is best remembered as Gale, the doomed chemist in Breaking Bad, and as Mike “Wags” Wagner in Billions. He brings a sharp edge to Tobias Thornhill in a story full of business deals and doubters.
Heléne Yorke as Margaret
Heléne Yorke, star of HBO Max’s The Other Two, plays Margaret. Set photos show her sharing scenes with Daddario’s Kitty.
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Where was Hershey filmed?
The movie was filmed entirely in Pennsylvania, across 17 locations in the state.
Cameras started rolling in May 2025, with Pittsburgh as the main base. Production wrapped in August 2025. The crew built 74 sets to cover Milton’s world, from the Derry Township farm to the chocolate factory, the company town and Milton Hershey School.
| Location | What it became on screen |
|---|---|
| Harmony (Butler County) | A late-19th-century village. Streets were covered in mulch to create dirt roads, and the Harmony Museum became a general store |
| Brownsville (Fayette County) | About a dozen facades near historic Union Station were restored for period street scenes |
| Bedford Square, South Side, Pittsburgh | A turn-of-the-century version of the square |
| Hey Babe, East Liberty, Pittsburgh | A period interior |
| Ligonier | Additional location filming |
| Smithfield | Additional location filming |
| Hershey | On-location filming in the real chocolate town |
Harmony, a historic village about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, got the biggest makeover. A print shop and an old-fashioned coffee and tea shop were also created there. The Wunderbar Coffee & Crepes building, a former opera hall, had its windows and doors repainted for the shoot.
Brownsville kept a souvenir. When filming ended, the crew took the props but left the restored Market Street storefronts in place. The town later turned the empty block into a Victorian-style holiday display.
Even the candy has local roots. Waters asked Betsy Ann Chocolates, a West View chocolatier operating since 1938, to make the candy props for the film.
Where to stream Hershey?
Hershey opens exclusively in theaters across the US on November 25, 2026, through Angel Studios. Tickets are available through Angel’s website and local cinema chains. International release dates haven’t been announced yet.
Before the wide release, Angel is holding a world premiere in specific theatres in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A screening is set for the evening of November 16, followed by a red-carpet event with the cast and filmmakers on November 17. Premiere packages range from $100 to $250, and the top tier includes an after-party at the Hershey Museum.
No streaming date has been announced. Angel’s theatrical films usually move to the studio’s own platform after their cinema run, so that’s the most likely streaming home. For now, theaters are the only way to see it.
Is there a trailer?
Yes. A first look premiered at CinemaCon in April 2026. Angel released the official trailer on June 29, 2026, alongside confirmation of the Thanksgiving release.
The trailer shows Milton’s repeated failures, his romance with Kitty and her encouragement as he searches for the perfect recipe. It also got attention online for a different reason. Some viewers joked that its glossy look made it resemble an AI-generated movie, and the film is very real.
Bottom Line
Hershey is a feel-good founder’s story with a bigger heart than most. It’s a chocolate biopic made in partnership with the chocolate company itself. It was shot across 17 Pennsylvania locations, and it puts a marriage, not a product, at the center. Wittrock and Daddario lead a strong supporting cast that includes Alan Ruck, Richard Kind and David Costabile, all under the director of Mean Girls.
Whether it becomes a Thanksgiving family tradition or not, it tells a story many people who’ve eaten a chocobar have never heard. Bring tissues, and maybe a chocolate bar.
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