An Oscar-winning actor has joined Apple TV’s upcoming adaptation of a bestselling book series set in 1920s Germany. As production continues on the high-profile project, the acclaimed performer takes on a key role in a story that explores the early days of a Berlin detective caught in the city’s rising political tension.
Colin Firth joins Jack Lowden in the cast of Apple TV show based on Metropolis book
Oscar winner Colin Firth has officially joined the cast of the untitled Apple TV+ series based on Philip Kerr’s Berlin Noir novels, starring opposite Jack Lowden. Firth plays Paul Lohser, a brilliant but prickly Berlin Murder Squad detective who becomes a partner and unlikely mentor to Lowden’s character, Bernie Gunther (via Deadline).
The production team is currently filming the series in Berlin. Bad Wolf and PlayTone, the company founded by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, lead the production. Oscar-winning screenwriter Peter Straughan adapted the series. BAFTA nominee Tom Shankland directs. The show begins with Metropolis, Kerr’s 1928-set novel. It follows Bernie Gunther’s early career as a newly promoted officer investigating a string of murders targeting marginalized victims.
Colin Firth and Straughan previously worked together on the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. This project marks a reunion for them. The series describes Bernie as “fighting for truth, whatever the cost,” in a Berlin filled with “unprecedented freedom and dizzying turbulence,” just before the rise of the Nazi regime.
Jane Tranter, Dan McCulloch, and Ryan Rasmussen serve as executive producers for Bad Wolf. Straughan and Shankland also serve as executive producers. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman take on executive production duties for PlayTone. Jane Thynne, widow of Philip Kerr, acts as consulting producer through Thynker Ltd.
Independent Talent and CAA represent Colin Firth. He next appears in Prime Video’s Young Sherlock, premiering March 4, and stars in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day. He also reprises his role as Harry Hart in Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Blue Bloods.
Apple TV named Jack Lowden as the lead in July 2025. Known for playing River Cartwright in Slow Horses, he now headlines the new series, widely seen as its successor. Slow Horses remains renewed through Season 7.
Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry on ComingSoon.net.
