Photos: Josh Wool/Jenny Anderson/Pablo Arroyo
Production has begun on the MGM+ and BBC produced series Legacy of Spies, adapted from John le Carré’s novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and drawing on material his 2017 novel, A Legacy of Spies.
Matthew Macfadyen (Death by Lightning, Succession) will star as George Smiley alongside Charlie Hunnam (Monster: The Ed Gein Story, The Gentlemen) as Alec Leamas, Daniel Brühl (Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, All Quiet on the Western Front) as Josef Fiedler, and Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu (The Empress, Hysteria) as Doris Quinz.
They join previously announced cast Agnes O’Casey (Black Doves, Lies We Tell), Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front, Frankenstein), Dan Stevens (Zero Day, Downton Abbey), Jake Dunn (What It Feels Like for a Girl, Renegade Nell), Safia Oakley-Green (The Bluff, Out of the Darkness), Ariyon Bakare (Mr Loverman, His Dark Materials), Saskia Rosendahl (Babylon Berlin, The Girl in the Spider’s Web), Patrick Güldenberg (Max Manus: Man of War, The Ibiza Affair), and Volker Bruch (Babylon Berlin, The Reader).
The eight-part thriller is show run and written by Stephen Cornwell (Message from the King, A Most Wanted Man) and Clarissa Ingram.
Per MGM+, the Legacy of Spies synopsis reads, “When Alec Leamas (Charlie Hunnam), a highly experienced Circus field operative, recruits Doris Quinz (Devrim Lingau Islamoğlu), a young and dynamic East German woman, to smuggle high-value Stasi documents into the West, it sets in motion a series of events that threaten to explode in the crucible of Cold War Berlin. Pursuing Leamas and Doris are Josef Fiedler (Daniel Brühl) and Hans-Dieter Mundt (Felix Kammerer), two Stasi operatives whose ferocious desire to shut down the intelligence leak is matched only by their internal rivalry and an iron will to outmatch each other. Pulled into the action is Liz Gold (Agnes O’Casey), an idealistic young woman whose courage and conviction force Leamas to navigate a world where loyalties fracture and betrayal is inevitable. Behind the scenes, the brilliant and taciturn spymaster George Smiley (Matthew Macfadyen) orchestrates operations while the elusive Soviet mastermind Karla looms in the shadows, setting the stage for a conflict that will define a generation. Personal lives become collateral in a ruthless intelligence war, and as the lines between duty and love begin to blur, every emotion becomes a weapon.”
“This is a timeless, and very timely, story about espionage, power, and morality. I am hugely thrilled and not a little daunted to be playing George Smiley – this quiet, intelligent and deeply private man. And delighted to be stepping into le Carré’s world in the company of such talented actors and producers,” Macfadyen says.
“I’m so excited to be part of this incredible project, and to be working alongside Matthew Macfadyen and such an exceptional cast, as well as having the opportunity to play such an iconic character. Leamas isn’t a traditional hero. He is worn down by the work, shaped and eroded by it over time, which is what makes him so compelling. Le Carré explored the personal toll of a life in espionage and what happens when the line between professional duty and something more personal begins to blur. It’s the humanity at the heart of this story that makes it so powerful and resonant,” Hunnam adds.
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