In the 'Lord of the Flies' Trailer, Childhood Is a Vision of Chaos

“We have to kill the beast,” the first trailer for Netflix’s forthcoming Lord of the Flies adaptation intones, a dark double-entendre that hints at many of the issues the show itself is likely to wrestle with.

Based on William Golding’s iconic 1954 novel of the same name, the classic dystopian tale is a cynical, cautionary tale of young boys and the capacity for violence they carry within them. Its story follows a group of British boys 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.

The four-part series, the first-ever television adaptation of Golding’s book, hails from Jack Thorne, the wildly prolific British writer behind shows like His Dark Materials, The Hack, Best Interests, and Toxic Town. But Thorne rose to an entirely new level of fame with Adolescence, the Emmy-winning hit that terrified parents around the world with its clear-eyed look at the ways toxic masculinity and internet culture are poisoning a generation of youth.

Honestly, who better to tackle one of the original stories of young boys gone wild?

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.