NBC announced that it’s picked up Langdon, its adaptation of Dan Brown’s 2009 novel The Lost Symbol, for a series, and that the project will now debut on its new streaming service Peacock.
The book is the third from Brown featuring his character Robert Langdon, a Harvard University history of art professor and “symbologist” who studies artwork for clues about secret societies and conspiracies. He first appeared in Brown’s novels Angels & Demons, his breakout hit The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Origin.
Three of those books have been adapted into films (with the exception of Origin), each of which starred Tom Hanks as Langdon. This new adaptation will star Ashley Zukerman (Succession, pictured above) as the show’s title character, as well as Valorie Curry (Blair Witch), Rick Gonzalez (Arrow), Eddie Izzard (Ocean’s Thirteen), Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds), and Sumalee Montano (10 Cloverfield Lane).
NBC ordered a pilot for the series back in January 2020. It’ll adapt Brown’s third installment of the series, The Lost Symbol, in which Langdon is summoned to the US Capitol Building, where five symbols have been discovered. His mentor, Peter Solomon, is kidnapped, and Langdon is forced to figure out the symbols and their mysterious invitation into the world of Masonic secrets to save him.
Susan Rovner, the chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division noted that they were “blown away by this pilot,” and that it would be a series well-suited for streaming.
“Our ability to pick up a great show is no longer limited by the confines of a network schedule, giving us the freedom to say ‘yes’ to shows we love and then find them the perfect home across our portfolio.”
According to Deadline, Ron Howard’s studio Imagine Entertainment had previously developed the novel as a film, but opted instead to move forward with an adaptation of Inferno. How the series will deal with those prior novels and adventures isn’t clear—or if it will acknowledge or share a continuity with the prior three films. NBC didn’t announce when the series would debut on Peacock.
