John Le Carré’s Cold War Spymaster George Smiley Returns in First Look at Matthew Macfadyen in ‘Legacy of Spies’

John Le Carré’s legendary British Cold War spy George Smiley, last seen on screens in the acclaimed film “Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy’ (played by Gary Oldman, coincidentally now starring as another fictitious agent in “Slow Horses”), has finally returned.

In the first image from BBC and MGM+ upcoming espionage thriller series “Legacy of Spies,” two-time Emmy and BAFTA winner Matthew Macfadyen appears in the iconic role. In another image, Charlie Hunnam is seen as the embattled, world-weary agent-runner and field operative Alec Leamas.

Filming has now wrapped on the eight-part series, which is adapted from le Carré’s bestseller “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” and drawing on material his 2017 novel “A Legacy of Spies.” Alongside Macfadyen and Hunnam, the show stars Daniel Brühl, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu, Agnes O’Casey, Felix Kammerer, Dan Stevens, Jake Dunn, Anjana Vasan, Charlotte Ritchie, Joe Alwyn and Hugh Laurie. Showrunners and writers are Stephen Cornwell (“Message from the King,” “A Most Wanted Man”) and Clarissa Ingram. Michael Lennox (“Say Nothing,” “Crystal Lake”) serves as an executive producer and had lead directorial duties.

In “Legacy of Spies,” when Leamas recruits Doris Quinz (Islamoğlu), 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 (Brühl) and Hans-Dieter Mundt (Kammerer), 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 (O’Casey), an idealistic young woman whose courage and conviction force Leamas to navigate a world where loyalties fracture and betrayal is inevitable. Behind the scenes, the brilliant and taciturn spymaster Smiley orchestrates operations while the elusive Soviet mastermind Karla looms in the shadows, setting the stage for a conflict that will define a generation. As per the description: “Personal lives become collateral in a ruthless intelligence war, and as the lines between duty and love begin to blur, every emotion becomes a weapon.”

“Legacy of Spies” is set to launch exclusively on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the U.K., 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.

The series was filmed principally in the Czech Republic, with location filming also in the U.K. and Germany.