‘Legacy of Spies’: Dan Stevens, Safia Oakley-Green & More Join New British Espionage Series!!

John le Carré‘s world of espionage is coming to streaming, courtesy of MGM+ and the BBC. Legacy of Spies, the new series that will bring legendary spymaster George Smiley back to the screen, is now in production. Matthew Macfadyen will play the lead role, and now we know who’ll be joining him in the series.

In addition to the already-announced MacFadyen (Death by Lightning), Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Daniel Brühl (Rush), and Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu (The Empress), the production has added Agnes O’Casey (Black Doves), Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Jake Dunn (Renegade Nell), Safia Oakley-Green (Out of Darkness), Ariyon Bakare (His Dark Materials), Saskia Rosendahl (Lore), Patrick Güldenberg (Max Manus: Man of War), and Volker Bruch (Babylon Berlin). The series will adapt both le Carré‘s classic 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, as well as his 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies. Amidst the backdrop of the Cold War in the 1960s, an experienced British field agent (Hunnam) recruits an East German woman (Islamoğlu) to smuggle key intelligence across the Iron Curtain, only to be pursued by a relentless Stasi agent (Brühl), while Smiley (Macfadyen) orchestrates the action from London.

Who Is George Smiley?

First created by le Carré (whose real name was David Cornwell, and who worked for British intelligence himself) in the 1961 novel Call for the Dead, George Smiley is an unassuming, bespectacled man who possesses a keen analytical mind. An employee of “The Circus,” le Carré’s fictionalized version of MI6, Smiley frequently clashed with his opposite number in the KGB, the mysterious Karla. Smiley appeared in many of le Carré‘s most famous novels, including The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Smiley’s People. Portrayers of Smiley on-screen include James Mason in the 1966 film The Deadly Affair, an adaptation of Call for the Dead; Alec Guinness, in two acclaimed TV adaptations of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People; and Gary Oldman in the 2011 big-screen adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Legacy of Spies will be executive produced and showrun by Stephen Cornwell (The Night Manager); other executive producers include Graham Yost, Michele Wolkoff, Malte Grunert, Chris Rice, Macfadyen, Hunnam, Michael Lennox, Joe Tsai, Susanne Bier, and Mike Lesslie. Gaynor Holmes and Nick Lambon produce for the BBC, and Nick Cornwell, Carré‘s son, executive produces for his father’s estate.