Netflix Boards Australian Drama ‘The Airport Chaplain’
Netflix has snapped up 'The Airport Chaplain', starring Hugo Weaving and Shabana Azeez.
Netflix has snapped up global distribution rights to the new Australian contemporary drama, The Airport Chaplain. The eight-part series is set in a bustling international airport, where people from all walks of life converge, experiencing reunions, departures, joy, grief, and everything in between. The pilot for the series originally debuted in 2025 as part of Series Mania, and the complete season will make its global premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival. The series has not yet received a commission for a second season, but development is already underway, with an announcement following before year’s end.
Hugo Weaving (Slow Horses) stars as Tobias Wallace, an airport terminal chaplain who helps shepherd travelers on their way around the world.
A fixer willing to do whatever it takes to solve problems, his unconventional methods — and occasional rule-breaking — run afoul of ambitious new terminal manager Mira (The Pitt's Shabana Azeez), who essentially sees his behavior as a lawsuit (or, worse, an international incident) waiting to happen. But as crises mount up involving everyone from overworked baggage handlers and security guards to grief-stricken relatives, Mira begins to understand that there might be a role for someone like Tobias to play after all.
Here’s the series’ synopsis.
At the centre of The Airport Chaplain is Tobias Wallace, a fast-moving fixer with a constantly ringing phone, pockets full of cash and an unorthodox approach to the daily crises of an airport. Convinced the airport couldn’t run without him, Tobias has never encountered a problem he couldn’t solve. Until he meets his formidable new boss Mira, who sees Tobias as less of a saviour to the masses and more a walking liability.
Their clash sparks a power struggle that reverberates through the terminal, drawing in the airport’s cleaners, baggage handlers and passengers who are all navigating their own hopes, challenges and life-changing moments amid the constant flow of arrivals and departures.
Alongside Weaving and Azeez, the ensemble cast includes Claudia Karvan (The Clearing), Thomas Weatherall (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), Kavitha Anandasivam (The Tourist), George Mason (The Power of the Dog), Michael Logo (Colin From Accounts), Claude Jabbour (The Secrets She Keeps), Jackson Tozer (Deadloch), Arka Das (Return to Paradise), Nicholas Denton (Dangerous Liaisons), Brenna Harding (Black Mirror), Ras-Samuel (The Clearing), Elias Anton (Swift Street), Fanny Hanusin (Wentworth), EchoPalo (The Correspondent), and Priscilla Doueihy (Lioness).
Elise McCredle (Stateless) created the series and wrote the episodes alongside Sarah Bassiuoni (Critical Incident), Mithila Gupta (Four Years Later), and playwright Vidya Rajan (Why Are You Like This), with Bonnie Moir and Tig Terera directing. McCredle is also an executive producer, with Jude Troy, Wooden Horse co-founder Richard Finlayson, co-producer Alex Cameron and SBS’ Nakul Legha.
The Airport Chaplain will premiere globally on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, on Netflix, the Australian broadcaster SBS, and its streaming platform, SBS on Demand.
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