The Boys from Brazil: Netflix Lands Nazi Hunting Series Starring Jeremy Strong, Gillian Anderson

Netflix is getting into the Nazi hunting business and, cousin, business is booming.

The streamer announced Tuesday, Nov. 18 that it has officially picked up five one-hour episodes based on The Boys from Brazil written and executive-produced by Peter Morgan (Emmy Award winning creator of The Crown). Production on the limited series, which kicks off next month, is set to take place across the United Kingdom, Germany, Bulgaria, and Spain.

Adapted from Ira Levin's best-selling thriller novel of the same name, the show will feature Succession star Jeremy Strong as Yakov Liebermann, a Jewish Holocaust survivor turned Nazi hunter—à la Simon Wiesenthal—who stumbles upon a dangerous conspiracy to resurrect the Third Reich through twisted genetic science.

Leading this charge to revive Hitler's fascist nightmare is Doctor Johann-Friedrich Meinhardt (Josef Mengele in the book), a sadistic concentration camp doctor who escaped justice at the end of World War II by fleeing to the remote jungles of South America.

Jeremy Strong leads Netflix limited series based on Ira Levin's The Boys from Brazil

Cover art for Blackstone Publishing's reprint of Ira Levin's The Boys from Brazil.

Photo: Courtesy of Blackstone Publishing

Strong, who was previously confirmed in February 2025, will be joined by August Diehl (Inglorious Basterds) as Doctor Meinhardt, Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) as Frieda Steiner, Daniel Brühl (Inglorious Basterds) as Von Harteneck, Shira Haas (Captain America: New World Order) as Anna Koehler, and Lizzy Caplan (Now You See Me: Now You Don't) as Hannah Liebermann.

“Building on his extraordinary work with The Crown, Peter continues to examine the political and emotional forces which, through the 20th century, have moulded the world we live in today,” executive producer Suzanne Mackie said in a statement. "That he does so via the intimate human stories within the sweep of history makes his storytelling powerfully relatable."

Simon Heath and Alex Gabassi are also executive producers, with the latter also directing. Oona O’Beirn and Andy Stebbing are producers.

"We’re thrilled to have assembled such an exceptional team, both in front of and behind the camera and to be working with the super-talented director, Alex Gabassi again for this new limited series for Netflix," Mackie added. "We can’t wait to bring Peter Morgan’s bold reimagining of Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil to the screen.”

The project marks the second onscreen translation of the novel after the 1978 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Sir Laurence Olivier as Liebermann and Gregory Peck as Mengele. Attempts to re-adapt the book go back to 2006 when now-disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner announced his intentions to direct a new movie based on the material.

"Ira Levin's gripping classic The Boys from Brazil will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2026, which makes us doubly excited about Netflix's upcoming adaptation," the Levin estate said in an exclusive statement to SYFY WIRE. "It's clearly a top-notch affair all around, and the perfect showcase for the compelling world of Levin's narrative."

The statement continues: "We've just added some fascinating archival materials to our website IraLevin.org surrounding the book's creation, including correspondence with Simon Wiesenthal—the inspiration for the fictional Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann, whom Jeremy Strong will be portraying. We hope Netflix's adaptation leads new and returning readers to the rich tapestry of Levin's novel, which was reissued last year with a new afterword from Dr. Efraim Zuroff (dubbed 'The last Nazi hunter')."

Here is the official synopsis for the limited series:

Part historical thriller, part moral reckoning, The Boys from Brazil is a limited series about obsession, vengeance, and the terrifying persistence of hatred. It asks: when the world chooses to forget its darkest history, who will fight to keep the memory—and the justice—alive?

Set across three decades from the immediate aftermath of WW2 through the political turbulence of the 1970s, The Boys from Brazil follows Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann, in his lifelong crusade to bring Nazi fugitives to justice, a crusade that has cost him nearly everything.

When one of his young protégées undercover in Brazil learns of a shocking Nazi plan, Liebermann is in a race against time to expose an unimaginable truth: Doctor Johann-Friedrich Meinhardt, a sadistic Nazi scientist he believed long dead, is alive and orchestrating a diabolical project to spark the rise of a Fourth Reich.