Netflix’s Chilling New Historical Thriller: The Boys from Brazil – A Peter Morgan Masterpiece on Obsession, Vengeance, and Nazism’s Terrifying Persistence!

Netflix has greenlit one of its most ambitious historical thrillers yet: The Boys from Brazil, a five-part limited series adapted from Ira Levin’s 1976 bestseller by The Crown showrunner Peter Morgan. Billed as a “tale of obsession, vengeance, and the terrifying persistence of hatred,” the drama follows Ezra Liebermann (Jeremy Strong, Succession), a fictionalized Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter, on a decades-long crusade to expose Josef Mengele’s (Harry Treadaway, Penny Dreadful) grotesque plot to clone Adolf Hitler 94 times and raise them in carefully engineered American families to resurrect the Third Reich. With a seriously impressive cast led by Strong and Gillian Anderson (Sex Education, The X-Files) as a steely CIA operative, the series promises Morgan’s signature blend of meticulous historical detail and pulse-pounding intrigue, arriving in late 2026.

Levin’s novel, a New York Times bestseller that won the Edgar Award for Best Novel, imagines Mengele – the real-life Auschwitz “Angel of Death” responsible for thousands of medical experiments – fleeing to Paraguay after WWII and enlisting surrogate mothers worldwide to birth Hitler clones, all born on April 20 (the Führer’s birthday). Liebermann, inspired by Simon Wiesenthal, uncovers the scheme through a trail of assassinated fathers who match Hitler’s profile. Morgan’s adaptation, penned as a “passion project” since acquiring rights in 2023, relocates the climax to 1970s America while amplifying the psychological toll on Liebermann, a fictional stand-in for the moral weight of survival.

Strong’s Liebermann is the beating heart – a chain-smoking, guilt-ridden survivor whose “obsession” borders on madness, his piercing eyes conveying the abyss he’s stared into since Auschwitz. “Ezra’s not a hero; he’s a man haunted by the ghosts he couldn’t save,” Strong told Variety at the TCA panel. Anderson’s Vivian Hale, a no-nonsense CIA analyst torn between duty and doubt, adds layers of institutional complicity, her steely resolve cracking under the horror. “Vivian’s the mirror to Ezra’s rage – she sees the system that let Mengele slip away,” Anderson said. Treadaway’s Mengele is a chilling pivot from his Penny Dreadful vampire – urbane, unrepentant, whispering eugenics dreams with a smile. The ensemble shines: Oscar Isaac as a rogue Mossad agent, Ruth Wilson as a cloned boy’s adoptive mother, and a chilling cameo from Anthony Hopkins as an aging Nazi financier.

Morgan, whose The Crown dissected royal dysfunction, brings forensic precision to Levin’s premise. “The novel’s paranoia feels prophetic in our echo-chamber age,” he said. Filmed in Paraguay, London, and rural Pennsylvania (doubling for the clones’ Midwestern upbringings), the series recreates Mengele’s “factory” with visceral detail – surrogates in sterile clinics, babies whisked to handpicked families. Directed by Minkie Spiro (3 Body Problem), the visuals – lensed by Greig Fraser (Dune) – contrast Mengele’s lush jungle hideout with the clones’ sterile Americana, underscoring hatred’s insidious spread.

Critics previewing the pilot are floored. The Hollywood Reporter called it “Morgan’s darkest triumph – Levin’s nightmare made visceral.” IndieWire praised Strong’s “searing descent into vengeance.” With Netflix’s $120 million budget, the series boasts a score by Hans Zimmer, blending orchestral swells with dissonant strings for unrelenting tension.

The Boys from Brazil isn’t just a thriller – it’s a warning: hatred doesn’t die; it clones itself. As Liebermann whispers in the finale, “They never really went away. They just waited.” Streaming late 2026 on Netflix. The hunt resumes – and this time, it’s personal.