Matthew Macfadyen Will Bring John Le Carré’s Most Famous Spy to Life

Though Amazon’s still struggling to figure out what to do with the James Bond franchise it acquired with seemingly very little forethought, espionage and spy dramas are still having a moment in pop culture. Blame Apple TV’s Slow Horses, whose five-season (and counting!) run has racked up critical acclaim, several significant pieces of awards hardware, and the sort of viewer numbers that more than justify its repeat renewals. (Heck, it’s even got a pseudo spinoff in the Emma Thompson-led Down Cemetery Road, which is based on another of author Mick Herron’s investigative series.) So it’s no surprise that other networks and streamers are rushing to follow suit.

MGM+ has joined forces with the BBC to produce Legacy of Spies, a new eight-part series based on the works of one of the most famous spy storytellers of all time: John le Carré. A former intelligence officer himself, he is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era and is known for his realistic depictions of the world of spycraft. The series will follow the story of George Smiley, arguably Le Carré’s most famous character, who starred in half a dozen of his novels and appeared as a supporting figure in four more.

Despite his ubiquitous presence on the page, the character of Smiley hasn’t been brought to life on screen all that often. Rupert Davies’ take on the character is a minor role in the 1965 film adaptation of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. Star Wars great Alec Guinness played him in a pair of popular BBC series that aired back in the late 1970s and early 80s. And Slow Horses star Gary Oldman nabbed an Oscar nomination for playing the (in)famous agent in the critically acclaimed 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 

Now Matthew Macfadyen, the actor best known these days for his turn as Tom Wambsgans on HBO’s Succession, but who has played everyone from Fitzwilliam Darcy (the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film) to assassin Charles Guiteau (Netflix’s Death By Lightning), will take on the role. He’s obviously talented, but he also has established spy series cred, having led the first two seasons of the long-running BBC series Spooks (which aired here in America as MI-5).

Legacy of Spies will adapt The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, while drawing in additional material from Le Carré’s 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies. This move makes sense, given that this is probably Le Carré’s best-known work. But Smiley’s also a fairly minor character in it, and the story primarily follows an intelligence officer named Alec Leamas. Since the show’s being touted as an exploration of his long-standing quest to catch the Russian spymaster known as Karla, it’s… well, it’s a somewhat surprising adaptation choice. 

Of course, this could all just be backhand confirmation that Legacy of Spies is a series that’s intended to run for several seasons. After all, neither of these listed titles is part of what is traditionally referred to as Le Carre’s “ Karla trilogy” (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley’s People), and while A Legacy of Spies is technically a sequel to those books (with some additional prequel bits thrown in), it seems unlikely the TV series would skip over all the good stuff just to get to the end so quickly. 

Macfadyen isn’t the only A-lister taking part in the eight-part drama. Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam will take on the role of Leamas, with Daniel Brühl playing East German spy Jens Fielder, and Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu as Doris Quinz, otherwise known as Agent Tulip. If you’re wondering why there’s no one playing Karla… well, technically, the shadowy figure rarely appears directly in the books. Though it seems highly likely the television series will opt to change that — what’s the point of a high-stakes cat and mouse chase if you only ever see one side of it onscreen? But we’ll have to wait and see on that score. 

Production on the series is slated to begin in 2026.