Matthew Macfadyen Is Iconic Le Carré Spy George Smiley In First Glimpse At The BBC & MGM+’s ‘Legacy Of Spies’

We’ve got first glimpse at Matthew Macfadyen descending into the John le Carré universe to play iconic spymaster George Smiley.

The BBC and MGM+‘s Legacy of Spies has dropped first-look images including the Succession star donning those trademark glasses and Charlie Hunnam as Alec Leamas, which can be seen below.

The eight-part drama marks Smiley’s long-anticipated return to television, a first in four decades, when he was played by Alec Guinness, although he was portrayed in the 2011 movie version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Gary Oldman.

Legacy of Spies is adapted from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and draws on additional material from 2017’s A Legacy of Spies.

When 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.

The images have been released to coincide with the end of production in the Czech Republic.

The show is one of the most highly-anticipated UK-U.S. co-pros of the upcoming year and also stars Daniel Brühl as Josef Fiedler, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu as Doris Quinz, Agnes O’Casey as Liz Gold, Felix Kammerer as Hans-Dieter Mundt, Dan Stevens as Bill Haydon, Jake Dunn as Peter Guillam, Anjana Vasan as Connie Sachs, Charlotte Ritchie as Ann Smiley, Joe Alwyn as Jim Prideaux.

Back in June, we revealed that Hugh Laurie would also star in Legacy of Spies. He is playing Control, the fiendish and commanding head of The Circus and Smiley’s morally fickle superior.

Legacy of Spies is set to launch on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK, and on MGM+ in the U.S., Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil and Spanish-speaking Latin America. The series will also air on SBS in Australia, Sky New Zealand and Sky Switzerland, and CANAL+ across France & French-speaking territories, Central & Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Legacy of Spies was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. The series is produced by The Ink Factory (The Pigeon Tunnel, The Night Manager), in co-production with Amusement Park Film (All Quiet on the Western Front) and in association with 127 Wall Productions and Paramount Television Studios, for the BBC and MGM+. The series is written by Stephen Cornwell (Message from the King, A Most Wanted Man) and Clarissa Ingram, Michael Lennox (Say Nothing, Crystal Lake) will serve as an executive producer and is lead director, with Claudia Llosa (The Vampire Lestat, The Milk of Sorrow) serving as second director and co-executive producer. The executive producers are Stephen Cornwell, who is also showrunner, Graham Yost (Justified, Silo), Simon Cornwell (The Pigeon Tunnel, The Night Manager), Michele Wolkoff, Malte Grunert (All Quiet on the Western Front), Chris Rice, Macfadyen, Hunnam, Clarissa Ingram, and Joe Tsai. Susanne Bier and Mike Lesslie are also executive producers. The executive producers for the BBC are Gaynor Holmes and Nick Lambon. Nick Cornwell is executive producer for the John le Carré estate. Sam Costin and Llosa, are co-executive producers and Nancy Bray is producer for The Ink Factory. Fifth Season is handling global sales.