A new television series based on the novels of John le Carré starring Matthew Macfadyen and Charlie Hunnam is in the works, Variety reports.
The BBC and MGM+ are developing Legacy of Spies, which will adapt le Carré’s novels about British spy George Smiley. The title comes from le Carré’s 2017 novel, A Legacy of Spies, although the first season of the series will also draw on the author’s 1963 novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.
Le Carré introduced Smiley in his first novel, Call for the Dead, and the character went on to appear in eight more novels, including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy, and The Secret Pilgrim. Le Carré’s son Nick Harkaway brought Smiley back in Karla’s Choice, published in 2024, four years after le Carré’s death.
The series adaptation will star Macfadyen (Succession) as Smiley, while Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) will play Alec Leamas, another spy. Other cast members include Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) and Devrim Lingnau (The Empress). The series will be written by Stephen Cornwell, another of le Carre’s sons, and Clarissa Ingram; Macfadyen and Hunnam are among its executive producers.
Stephen Cornwell and his brother Simon Cornwell said, “This project is in many ways the most ambitious and all-encompassing adaptation of le Carré’s work to date, taking our father’s best-known and most-loved most character—the complex and brilliant spymaster George Smiley—and using this medium as a canvas to chart his story as he moves through a world which culturally and politically shapes the one we live in today.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
