The New 'Shardlake' Trailer Introduces a New Detective Favorite

Sir Patrick Stewart famously once said an actor can never have too many franchises, and the Walt Disney Company clearly agrees with this philosophy. Having snapped up previously successful long-running brands like Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Doctor Who, and The Muppets, to name a few, to supplement their own animation domination, the company has been searching for a home-grown live-action brand to add to the stable. The latest bid for one comes out of the U.K. and has a good chance at sticking around: Shardlake, based on C.J. Sansom's popular novel series. Set in Tudor England, the titular detective, Matthew Shardlake, is a hunchback lawyer working in one of the dangerous places in England, the shadows of Henry VIII's court under the employ of Thomas Cromwell.

The series was initially commissioned in January 2023 for Disney+ UK and is expected to come to Hulu in the U.S., as most non-super-family-oriented series made for the U.K. version of Disney's streamer seem to always do. However, in the intervening time, Hulu has become a tile under the Disney+ banner in America. Though some still subscribe to Hulu as a stand-alone, this will be one of the first Disney+ UK shows that will be able to say it is genuinely a Disney+ global debut when it arrives in May 2024.

The first trailer for the U.K. market arrived in February 2024, along with a cast list revealing Arthur Hughes (Ordeal by Innocence) would play the titular Shardlake. Hughes will star opposite the great Sean Bean (Time) as his boss, Thomas Cromwell, whom Shardlake doesn't dare cross but also isn't sure isn't setting him up to take a fall. One reason Shardlake is so paranoid about Cromwell's true intentions is that Cromwell has saddled him with an unasked-for assistant, Jack Barak, who Shardlake is pretty sure is reporting back on his activities to the boss. Described in the novels as "cocky and good-looking," Jack is played by one of the U.K.'s hottest new actors, Anthony Boyle (Manhunt).