‘Legacy of Spies’ Introduces the Next George Smiley
'Legacy of Spies' is probably destined to flop in the U.S., but the first-look images make us want to see it if we ever get the chance.
Jeff Bezos is no longer in charge at Amazon – he resigned in 2021 to “focus on Blue Origin.” However, his legacy at Prime Video as a leader who wasted millions of dollars on shows and movies that mostly flopped remains. It doesn’t help that since his exit, the company has kept making bad decisions, from pouring billions into the mid-tier, totally unnecessary, SEO-unfriendly The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to being bested by the Broccolis over James Bond.
The 007 issue continues to haunt the studio. Since the Broccolis finally gave up their family legacy, the studio has been able to move forward on a new film. However, the hope of a Bond-adjacent TV series that would somehow magically turn Amazon’s secondary streaming service, MGM+, from a platform no one has heard of into a powerhouse, remains unfulfilled. Instead of doing the sensible thing and folding MGM+ into regular Prime Video, Amazon keeps throwing good money after bad by boarding the BBC’s forthcoming John le Carré adaptation Legacy of Spies.
Adapted from John le Carré’s global bestseller, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and drawing on material from his 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies, the new series will debut on MGM+ in the U.S. as the streaming service’s best Bond backup plan. With a cast of 22 named characters, Amazon is essentially rounding up every British actor in need of employment and sending them to a service where no one will see them. It seems an odd choice; we can only assume Amazon must feel threatened by Apple TV’s success, since, as John Oliver so memorably put it, Apple is the place where “celebrities go to hide.”
Even though the series is almost certainly destined to flop on this side of the pond (at least until Amazon admits defeat and puts it on Prime Video proper), the first-look images suggest a series Americans would totally love, if they ever got to see it.
Here’s the official synopsis:
When Alec Leamas, a highly experienced Circus field operative, recruits Doris Quinz, 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 and Hans-Dieter Mundt, 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, 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 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.
The series stars Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) as George Smiley, Charlie Hunnam (The Gentlemen) as Alec Leamas, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as Bill Haydon, Agnes O’Casey (Black Doves) as Liz Gold, Ariyon Bakare (Mr. Loverman) as Cy Aflon, Hugh Laurie (The Night Manager) as Control, Anjana Vasan (We Are Lady Parts) as Connie Sachs, Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist) as Jim Prideaux, Charlotte Ritchie (Grantchester) as Ann Smiley, Lee Ross (Andor) as Inspector Oliver Mendel, and Adam Hugill (Sherwood) as Fawn, George Smiley’s hardman babysitter.
Additional British cast includes Jake Dunn (Renegade Nell) as Peter Guillam, Safia Oakley-Green (Sherwood) as Molly Gibson, James McArdle (Playing Nice) as Percy Alleline, John Dagleish (Sexy Beast) as Roy Bland, and Goran Bogdan (The Silence) as Toby Esterhase.
The German contingent includes Daniel Brühl (All Quiet on the Western Front) as Josef Fiedler, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu (The Empress) as Doris Quinz, Volker Bruch (Babylon Berlin) as Emmanuel Rapp, Felix Kammerer (Frankenstein) as Hans-Dieter Mundt, Patrick Güldenberg (Murder in the Mountains) as Dr. Karl Riemeck, and Saskia Rosendahl (The Girl in the Spider’s Web) as Lotte Gamp.
Stephen Cornwell and Clarissa Ingram penned the eight-episode series, adapted and inspired by material from LeCarré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and A Legacy of Spies. Claudia Llosa (The Vampire Lestat) joins as lead director, with Michael Lennox (Say Nothing) as second director, and Cornwell as showrunner.
Cornwell, Ingram, and Lennox executive produce with Macfadyen and Hunnam, alongside Simon Cornwell, Graham Yost, Michele Wolkoff, Malte Grunert, Chris Rice, Joe Tsai, Sam Costin, Susanne Bier & Mike Lesslie, plus Gaynor Holmes & Nick Lambon for the BBC, Nick Cornwell for the John le Carré estate, and Nancy Bray for The Ink Factory.
Legacy of Spies is expected to debut on BBC One and iPlayer, followed by a run on MGM+ sometime during the 2026-2027 television season.
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