Netflix has released a new trailer for Young Wallander, a new Netflix series based on the late Swedish author Henning Mankell’s police detective character, Kurt Wallander, who appeared in 11 novels and one short-story collection. The new, English-language show, which stars Swedish actor Adam Pålsson, will premiere on the streaming service on Sept. 3.
The new series features the detective in his early 20s, working on his first homicide case. It isn’t based on a specific novel, and it appears to occur after the events of Mankell’s short story, “Wallander’s First Case,” which appeared in the Kirkus-starred 2008 collection The Pyramid; that story starred the title character as a 21-year-old patrolman in 1969. The new show appears to take place in a later era; the trailer features a smartphone and other technology that puts it in the late 2000s, at the earliest.
Young Wallander seems to be following in the footsteps of other popular prequels, such as the English TV series Endeavor, which follows the early adventures of author Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse, and Prime Suspect: Tennison, an English series that features Lydia La Plante’s Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in her younger days.
Wallander has appeared in numerous TV and film productions in the past, including nine Swedish movies in the 1990s and 2000s, based on Mankell’s novels and starring Swedish actor Rolf Lassgård, and a Swedish TV series featuring mostly new stories and starring Swedish actor Krister Henriksson, which aired between 2005 and 2013. A BBC series based on several Mankell books, which starred Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh, was broadcast between 2008 and 2016. The Swedish production company Yellow Bird co-produced both the Swedish and English TV series, and it’s doing the same for Young Wallander.
Other Wallander books that received Kirkus Stars include 2002’s One Step Behind and 2011’s The Troubled Man.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
