Pictures Courtesy of Netflix – Full Credits Below
Netflix is gearing up for production on its new British crime drama series, Legends, which was first commissioned in August 2024. The drama is inspired by a real-life criminal investigation involving British Customs employees going undercover to bust dangerous criminal drug gangs. We’ve got a bunch more details on the project including the first 12 actors and actresses attached.
The new series stems from Tannadice Pictures, which works in partnership with Objective Fiction. It’s the production label of Neil Forsyth, who serves as the writer and creator of Legends. Forsyth is best known for working on TV projects like Guilt and The Gold. Upon the show’s initial announcement, Forsyth said, “I’m very excited to be able to tell this incredible story, along with everyone at Tannadice Pictures. I think Legends is a fascinating, gripping, unknown British story that deserves to be told in full. I’m delighted that Netflix agreed.”
Brady Hood is set to direct the series (episodes 1-4), bringing experience from his work on the recent BBC/FX adaptation of Great Expectations. He has previously collaborated with Netflix on Top Boy and The One, serving as the lead director for Top Boy. Julian Holmes, best known for working on Prime Video’s Reacher series and The Boys, will direct episodes 5 and 6.
Neil Forsyth (left), Brady Hood (middle) and Julian Holmes (right) – Picture: Objective Fiction / Alamy
The updated official synopsis of the series is as follows:
“In the early 1990s, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise was losing its battle with illegal drug smuggling across Britain’s borders. The solution was extraordinary. In a top-secret operation, a small team of Customs employees were sent undercover. Their task – to infiltrate Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs.
But these were not trained spies. They were normal men and women, plucked from ordinary lives around the UK, put through a basic training regime and tasked with building new identities in the criminal underworld. These identities were called Legends.”
Netflix’s director of UK content, Mona Qureshi, said about the new show, “As such fans of Neil’s The Gold, we were immediately excited by the prospect of the extraordinary story of Legends in his hands. Transporting us back to 1990s Britain, where the government was losing its battle in what was a global war on drugs, Neil’s scripts introduce us to a compelling ensemble of characters whose unexpected journeys into the dangerous labyrinth of undercover operations promise a gripping, action-filled series that sits in the best tradition of UK crime stories. We can’t wait for Legends to come to life on Netflix.”
Who is in the cast of Legends for Netflix?
Pictures courtesy of Netflix UK
In March 2025, we first unveiled the first two names attached to the project, Sonny Walker and Joshua Barry.
Since then, Netflix has rounded out the cast with an additional 10 names, including:
- Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Souvenir)
- Steve Coogan (Philomena, The Reckoning)
- Hayley Squires (Beau Is Afraid, I, Daniel Blake)
- Aml Ameen (A Man in Full, Rustin)
- Jasmine Blackborow (The Gentlemen, Marie Antoinette)
- Douglas Hodge (G20, Joker)
- Tom Hughes (The English, Victoria)
- Johnny Harris (A Gentleman in Moscow, Great Expectations)
- Gerald Kyd (The Assassin, Love Rat)
- Charlotte Ritchie (YOU, Ghosts)
When will filming start on Netflix’s Legends?
According to ProductionIntelligence provided by The Knowledge Online, production is set to kick off on March 24th, 2025, for 17 weeks, meaning it’ll wrap production in late July 2025. The shoot is set to take place predominantly in the United Kingdom in the northwest of London, but there’s also reportedly a filming set to take place in Morocco.
There is no word on a release date just yet, although given the production start and the fact the series wasn’t mentioned at the recent Next on Netflix UK event, we probably will see a 2026 release. For more on what’s coming up from Netflix UK over the next few years, keep it locked here on What’s on Netflix.
Richard Bradley and Ben Farrell are executive producers on the series, and Charlie Leech produces. Olivia Scott-Web is the casting director.
Are you looking forward to Legends on Netflix? Keep this post bookmarked for the latest updates, and let us know in the comments if you’ll be watching.
Photo credits: Thomas Laisne, Iona Wolff, Pip, Matt Hollyoak, Rhys Frampton, Gregg DeGuire, Tony Briggs, Matt Nalton, and Evevine/Graeme Robertson.
