Matthew Macfadyen Debuts as George Smiley in 'Legacy of Spies' First Look

Matthew Macfadyen has stepped into the role of George Smiley. The BBC and MGM+ have released the first image from their upcoming espionage thriller series "Legacy of Spies," showing the two-time Emmy and BAFTA winner as John le Carré's legendary British Cold War spy.

A second image reveals Charlie Hunnam as Alec Leamas, the embattled, world-weary agent-runner and field operative. Smiley last appeared on screen in the acclaimed film "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," played by Gary Oldman — who, coincidentally, now stars as another fictional agent in "Slow Horses."

Filming has now wrapped on the eight-part series. The show adapts le Carré's bestseller "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and draws on material from his 2017 novel "A Legacy of Spies."

The cast also includes Daniel Brühl, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu, Agnes O'Casey, Felix Kammerer, Dan Stevens, Jake Dunn, Anjana Vasan, Charlotte Ritchie, Joe Alwyn and Hugh Laurie. Stephen Cornwell ("Message from the King," "A Most Wanted Man") and Clarissa Ingram serve as showrunners and writers. Michael Lennox ("Say Nothing," "Crystal Lake") is an executive producer and led the directorial duties.

In the series, Leamas recruits Doris Quinz (Islamoğlu), a young and dynamic East German woman, to smuggle high-value Stasi documents into the West. The operation 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.

Liz Gold (O'Casey), an idealistic young woman, is pulled into the action. Her courage and conviction force Leamas to navigate a world where loyalties fracture and betrayal is inevitable. Behind the scenes, Smiley orchestrates operations while the elusive Soviet mastermind Karla looms in the shadows, setting the stage for a conflict that will define a generation.

The series' description spells out the stakes: "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" will 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 and French-speaking territories, Central and Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Principal photography took place in the Czech Republic, with additional location filming in the U.K. and Germany.

With production complete and a sprawling international distribution footprint in place, "Legacy of Spies" positions Macfadyen's Smiley as the next defining screen incarnation of le Carré's spymaster — and the first small-screen take since Oldman's Oscar-nominated turn reinvented the character for a new generation.