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Starring Gustaf Skarsgård (“Oppenheimer,” “Vikings”), the anticipated – and highly modern – reboot of “Wallander,” set up at Banijay Entertainment’s Jarowskij/Yellow Bird and Swedish broadcast network TV4, has added further key cast: Sophia Martinsson (“Festen,” “Bror”), Ana Gil De Melo Nascimento (“Sune,” “Gåsmamman,” “Jordskott”) and Göran Ragnerstam(“Arn,” “Kopps,” “Offside”).
The cast news comes as Jarowskij/Yellow Bird has also announced a new action-comedy for Netflix Nordics, “Permafrost.”
Martinsson, 22, who landed the lead role of Zafirah in youth series “Festen,” now on its fourth season, will play Kurt Wallander’s estranged daughter. Martinsson’s roles also take in youth series “Bror,” Josephine in “Sannigen” Season 2, which bowed on Dec. 25, and movie “Nipster.”
A prominent performer at Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theater whose extensive TV career takes in “Gåsmamman” (2016-17) and “Jordskott” (2017), Gil de Melo Nascimento will take on the role of wife Mona Wallander.
A Guldbagge Swedish Academy Award best supporting actor winner for his performance in “Suxxes” (2002), the seasoned Ragnerstam, who has acted in over 50 series and films – most recently “The Quiet Beekeeper” which opened this year’s Göteborg Film Festival on Jan. 23 – will be seen in “Wallander” as the father of the iconic detective.
Adaptations of Henning Mankell’s celebrated Kurt Wallander novels, wgich have sold over 40 million copies, have generated a three-season Swedish series over 2005-13 whose broadcast on the U.K.’s BBC 4 heralded the breakout of Scandinavian series in international. Kenneth Branagh starred as the eponymous police inspector in a British TV version, running over 2008-16.
The importance of the three family figures in the new “Wallander” reboot sets it apart, however, and grounds its modern-day tenor. In their classic European murder mystery versions – think Hércules Poirot – detectives are a source of authority and a sense of stability in a world of least suspected criminality. In the “Wallander” reboot, in contrast, Gustaf Skarsgård’s Wallander’s life is falling apart.
“When we start the series, Wallander has just been divorced by his wife. It’s very fresh. He is still hoping for her to come back,” Elin Kvist, Jarowskij/Yellow Bird CEO, told Variety.
“The series is really a dance between the two of them. It’s so much attraction, love and affection,” she added. “At the same time, she’s moved on, doesn’t want to come back and he has to realize that, which is really hurtful at times in the series. She really brings real, raw emotion.”
At the same time, Wallander is constantly worried about his daughter, who has a troubled past, seen over the series, but she wants to break free from her parents. Wallander’s father is getting older and also slipping away, no longer the person who he once could rely on. “So in a sense it’s as if Wallander is losing everyone,” Kvist added.
Uncertain about himself, Wallander lives in a today’s society, moeover, where “you need to take responsibility for your actions. Even if you’re sad or even if you’re alone, you can’t just act out, so that has been a very interesting adaptation of the character,” Kvist said.
Moving into production in January, shooting in Stockholm and surroundings. “Permafrost,” produced by Jarowskij/Yellow Bird, is directed by Patrik Eklund (“The Conference”) from a scripts by Peter Arrhenius (“Clark”).
Key cast takes in Björn Gustafsson, Aliette Opheim, Marie Richardsson, Maria Lundqvist, Jimmy Lindström, Vera Vitali, Peter Eggers, Leo Razzak, Fredrik Hiller and Bahador Foladi.
It turns on Marcus Tell and Ann Wilding, the Swedish police’s most unlikely duo, forced to unite when their seemingly vastly different investigations lead to the same dramatic conclusion: an attack during Stockholm’s Nobel Week. Lotta Westberg produces.
The announcement of “Permafrost” comes as seven of Netflix’s Top 10 most viewed non-English language films in history are in some way action movies: “Troll,” “Under Paris,” “Extraterritorial,” “Nowhere,” “The Great Flood,” “Counterattack” and “Ad Vitam.”
Celebrated for “Parlamentet” and “Stockholm Live,” “Björn Gustafsson is Sweden’s most famous comedian. So it’s very much comedy driven but the case is taken very seriously. We haven’t done much action comedy here or indeed much action at all. So it’s very exciting and big for Sweden,” said Kvist.
Scandinavia’s TV scene was devastated by Viaplay’s pull-back from massive content investment in 2023.
Jarowskij and Yellow Bird, known for “Milennium” and “Wallander” franchises, merged in September 2024, with Kvist appointed as CEO.
“We can combine Jarowskij , a comedy drama company, with big crime and international co-production DNA from Yellow Bird. I think that match has been a very successful for us,” said Kvist.
Scandinavian producers “still have SVT and TV4 as strong broadcasters and then we have Netflix and Amazon and HBO Max coming back. Being a big company, we have a good and, I hope, stable market right now in the Nordics,” she added.
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