Far be it for us to deny the lasting power of an idea, especially when that idea is “a bunch of kids crash-land in an unforgiving environment, chaos ensues.” While that very concept has been brought back to vivid life in recent years by shows like “Yellowjackets” and “The Wilds,” the granddaddy of them all remains William Golding’s seminal 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies.” And, this spring, it’s coming to TV too.
The next on-screen iteration of “Lord of the Flies” hails from Netflix and Emmy winner Jack Thorne, co-creator of “Adolescence” (so he knows a thing or two about this whole “pre-teen boys gone mad” thing). Thorne adapted the novel for the series (which will arrive in four, one-hour episodes), which was directed by Marc Munden.
Per the streamer’s official logline: “Innocence descends into savagery when a group of English schoolboys becomes desert island castaways in the first television adaptation of William Golding’s landmark dystopian classic.” That’s about the sum of it!
Golding’s novel has been adapted for the screen before, including three films, though this series is the book’s first time going the TV route (the series has already debuted in the UK). For its first foray onto the small screen, Thorne and company appear to have kept things quite traditional, sticking to its 1950s setting and kitting it out with all manner of young Brits.
The cast includes Winston Sawyers as Ralph, Lox Pratt as Jack, David McKenna as Piggy, and Ike Talbut as Simon. Thomas Connor appears as Roger, while Noah and Cassius Flemyng play twins Sam and Eric, Cornelius Brandreth is Maurice, and Tom Page-Turner is Bill. And that’s to say nothing of an overall ensemble of more than 30 boys playing the desert island camp’s “biguns” and “littluns.”
Executive producers include Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell for Eleven, Thorne for One Shoe Films, and Munden. The series also boasts music from Hans Zimmer, Kara Talve, and Cristobal Tapia de Veer.
The series will drop on Netflix on Monday, May 4. Check out its first trailer below.
