MGM+ Hopes You Care It Has 'Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue'

Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders have been two of PBS Masterpiece's most successful mystery series in ages. Penned by Anthony Horowitz, the man who created Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War, among others, both seasons of the Lesley Manville-led meta-mystery tour have been the highlights of their respective release years. Horowitz, of course, is cautiously optimistic, but it seems almost inconceivable that Masterpiece would not greenlight the final novel in the series, Marble Hall Murders, when it arrives later in 2025. It is nearly as unthinkable as letting his next series, Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, slip away and land on MGM+, of all places.

Was it the Tarantino-esque title that caused Nine Bodies to wind up on the least-watched streaming service of the mainstream set? Did the BBC hope that Amazon's hopelessly inept marketing people, who regularly treat the streaming service like the dollar movie theater off their junk-laden flea market, might suddenly awaken and promote the multiple BBC series its acquired extra streaming service technically co-produces? (If so, Rogue Heroes Season 2 would like a word.)

Whatever the reason, Nine Bodies going to MGM+ deprives PBS viewers of something they almost certainly would have tuned in for: Horowitz's take on one of Agatha Christie's most classic tales. Her best-selling stories of all time boil down to two solutions: The One Where Everyone Did It and The One Where Nobody Did It. The trailer for Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue is pretty clear on which one Horowitz is playing with.

Here's the limited series' synopsis:

In the six-part series, a plane carrying a small group of passengers, crew and pilot, crashes in the Mexican jungle. All the bodies are recovered and placed in a morgue…but it turns out that only one of them died in the crash. The other passengers were murdered afterwards, each one in a unique way. But by whom? And why? As the story unfolds in flashback, we meet the survivors as they fight against the heat, a shortage of supplies, the many dangers of the jungle…and each other. The setting becomes increasingly tense and claustrophobic as, one by one, they are dispatched with a series of shocks that bring us ever closer to the truth and – at the very end – a jaw-dropping reveal.

The flight's manifest of characters starts with American actor Eric McCormick (Will & Grace) as Kevin, who co-stars with an international cast that includes David Ajala (Star Trek: Discovery) as Zack, Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls) as Lisa, Adam Long (Happy Valley) as Dan, Jan Le (D.I. Ray) as Amy, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Tourist) as Travis, Oscar Foronda (The Crown) as Revueltas, Peter Gadiot (Yellowjackets) as Carlos, Lydia Wilson (The Swarm) as Sonja, and Horacio Colomé (The Tribe) as the Radio Operator.

Horowitz created and wrote all six episodes of Nine Bodies. Directors Viviane Andereggen (Tatort) and Brian O'Malley (Alex Rider) split helming duties between them. Horowitz also executive produces the series with Jill Green and Eve Gutierrez for Eleventh Hour Films, a Sony Pictures Television-backed company.

Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue does not yet have a release date, but MGM+'s "coming soon" tag suggests it will probably arrive in March or April 2025.