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.