Netflix Officially Finds Its Next Perfect Thriller Adaptation After Its $2.2B Film Franchise Ended

Published Jul 31, 2026, 3:14 PM EDT Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows. In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA. Although there hasn’t been a cinematic installment in nearly a decade, the Robert Langdon series is one of the most consistently underrated franchises and has a massive international fanbase. Dan Brown’s series of novels about the brilliant Harvard professor of symbology and religion was quite popular, with the second installment, The Da Vinci Code, selling over 80 million copies worldwide and inciting significant controversy and discussion. The film franchise based on Brown’s work started strong before petering out; both The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons were massive hits that ranked among the highest-grossing films of Tom Hanks’ career, but the third movie, Inferno, was a disappointment that made a continuation unlikely. There is still tremendous potential in Brown’s books, and the Robert Langdon franchise is getting new life on Netflix with the upcoming show The Secret of Secrets. While Hanks nailed the role and delivered a performance that impressed fans of the novels, he is now too old to realistically play Langdon again. This isn’t the first time that Robert Langdon has been turned into a television show, but Peacock’s The Lost Symbol was cancelled after just one season. Thankfully, The Secret of Secrets has a strong creative team behind it, including Carlton Cuse, a showrunner who previously worked on both Lost and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Most excitingly, Langdon will be played by Morgan Spector, a terrific actor best known for his acclaimed performances in The Gilded Age and The Plot Against America. The 'Robert Langdon' Series Is Perfect for Television The films directed by Ron Howard did their best to pack in as much detail from the books as possible, but the Robert Langdon series is better suited for television because of the massive scope and density of the material, which involves a significant amount of problem-solving and historical deep dives. Netflix is the right place for The Secret of Secrets because it has the freedom to go into depth, but isn't held back by the budgetary constraints of a network show; Langdon needs to be traveling the world and visiting various historically significant locations, but there also needs to be enough time to thoroughly explain his role as a symbologist and the importance of his missions. Cuse is the ideal showrunner for The Secret of Secrets because of his experience; Lost showed that he could develop “mystery box” stories with strong religious allusions, and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan indicated that he could offer a fresh, modern perspective on a beloved novel series that remained faithful to the author’s intentions. While not every streaming show benefits from Netflix’s “binge drop” model, the complex blend of history, religion, politics, and intrigue within the Robert Langdon novels suggests that The Secret of Secrets would be more engaging if viewers could watch it all at once and absorb the details. Hanks set such a strong precedent with his performance that recasting was always going to be a challenge, but Spector is the right age to play Langdon and has the poise, intelligence, and sharp wit needed to portray a thoughtful yet calculating professor. Langdon is a compelling character because he shows both a fascination with history and moral clarity, and Spector has previously succeeded in playing ethically sound characters in the midst of intense historical conflicts, including George Russell and Herman Levin in The Plot Against America stands up for family values as America faces a right-wing incursion. ‘The Secret of Secrets’ Is the Right Dan Brown Story To Adapt While there are now six installments in the original Robert Langdon book series, The Secret of Secrets is Brown's most recent novel, and thus the most relevant to today's world. The story involves Langdon exploring an ancient scientific manuscript that comes to the attention of various world governments, and the fight for the democratization of knowledge is bound to be timely. The Secret of Secrets is also the best and most creative installment in the series since The Da Vinci Code, and offers a much stronger blueprint for an adaptation than Inferno and The Lost Symbol provided. There’s no point in rebooting or remaking a property that has already been well-received, but Robert Langdon is in the right position to earn a new adaptation because enough time has passed since the last iteration and there are ways to improve the story within a new medium. Since The Secret of Secrets has yet to be adapted, Netflix's series will be able to offer a fresh perspective on Langdon as a character, showing him under different circumstances dealing with a new threat. While the films were generally well-received, a show with the expansive capabilities and global reach of Netflix’s backing has the potential to be the definitive adaptation of Brown’s material, and the presence of an actor of Spector’s caliber might be enough to get non-readers interested in both Brown’s writing and the character of Robert Langdon for the first time. Robert Langdon