Jack Thorne's 'Lord of the Flies' Will Arrive on Netflix In May
The first TV adaptation of William Golding's classic novel will arrive on our screens this Spring.
There probably isn't a writer working today who is better equipped to bring author William Golding's iconic 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, to the small screen for the very first time than Jack Thorne. The man behind the Emmy-winning juggernaut Adolescence has already proven his skill at telling stories about complicated young men.
Even if you’ve never actually read Lord of the Flies, it’s pretty much a guarantee you’re still familiar with the basic beats of its story. (A lot of popular culture has cribbed bits from Golding’s novel, most recently the Showtime series Yellowjackets, which essentially genderswapped many of its dark survivalist themes.)
A cynical, cautionary tale of young boys and the capacity for violence they carry within them, the book follows a group of British kids who are stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after an airplane crash. As they struggle to survive, their attempts at civilizational order rapidly dissolve into factions, and chaos, competition, and even death ultimately ensue.
Those who have already seen Thorne’s previous Netflix series will not be surprised to learn that the struggles of young men in a modern society rife with toxic masculinity are still top of mind for him as a storyteller.
“As a society, we’re having a conversation right now about boys,” he told Netflix’s Tudum. “We’re losing a generation of boys, and we’re losing it because of the hate they are ingesting — because it is an answer to their loneliness and isolation.”
Here is the series’ synopsis.
Lord of the Flies is the story of schoolboys stranded on a tropical island with no adults, following a deadly plane crash. In an attempt to remain civil they organise themselves, led by Ralph and supported by the group’s intellectual, Piggy. But when Jack becomes more interested in hunting and vying for leadership, he soon begins to draw other boys away from the group and, ultimately, from hope to tragedy.
The series’ cast comprises over 30 young actors, most of whom are unknowns making their professional onscreen debuts. Each of its four episodes is titled after one of the characters at the core of the story: Ralph (Winston Saywers), the group’s initial leader; Jack (Lox Pratt), head of a rival faction; Piggy (David McKenna), the brains behind many of Ralph’s best ideas; and Simon (Ike Talbut), the book’s moral center.
Thorne wrote all four episodes, which were directed by Marc Munden (Help) and produced by Callum Devrell-Cameron (Sex Education). Executive producers include Munden, Thorne for One Shoe Films, Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell for Eleven, Nawfal Faizullah for the BBC, and Cailah Scobie for Stan.
Lord of the Flies will premiere on Netflix with all episodes on Monday, May 4, 2026.
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