First Look at 'Maigret' Reboot Reveals The New Detective

One of the most challenging decisions when remaking a once-popular series that has fallen by the wayside is whether or not to update it to the modern era, especially when the series in question was initially set in "contemporary times" when it was originally released. For some shows, like Acorn TV's new version of Dalgliesh, the production sticks with keeping the series in the mid-century milieu, turning what was a modern series in the late 1970s/early 1980s into a 21st-century period piece. Considering that Masterpiece is all about period dramas, one might think the anthology series would keep its new version of Maigret in its original 1960s-set era; however, that's not the case. Instead, the new series will be reimagined for the present day, despite many of the titular French detective's cases being rooted in mid-century politics.

The reset might partly be because the show has been off the air for so long. For 45 years, from 1960 to 2005, there was at least one small screen adaptation of Maigret, based on Georges Simenon's best-selling novels, in production/airing in the U.K./France/Germany/Italy. But when the final series ended in 2005, the detective, once second only to Sherlock Holmes in popularity, disappeared entirely from public consciousness. Moreover, the last version to receive U.S. distribution was in the early 1990s, long before streaming emerged, starring the late Michael Gambon.

With Van der Valk's return for Season 5 still up in the air and Annika Season 3 AWOL for the time being, Masterpiece is a bit short on contemporary mystery series, with only Unforgotten and The Marlow Murder Club currently filling that gap. With modern memory no longer emotionally attached to the mid-century Maigret, it makes a lot of sense to take the series and reset it in 2025 with a new version of the detective that completely overhauls the originally big burly investigator into a more contemporary-looking French sleuth.