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Published 18 minutes ago
After joining Screen Rant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers.
With FX’s acclaimed action adventure series Shōgun now unlikely to be released before late 2027, fans of this exquisitely produced period drama need something else to occupy their time. Look no further than Netflix’s new miniseries Sandokan, which is rapidly making its way up the streaming platform’s global and American charts.
While it’s almost impossible for any other period drama to compete with Shōgun, which is arguably one of the best TV shows of the past 25 years, there are unquestionably key similarities between the two series. They’re both heavily costumed pseudo-historical tales set in East Asia, involving pirate adventurers from Britain.
Shōgun isn’t the only series similar to Sandokan, either. Fans of the historical pirate TV show Black Sails on Starz will also enjoy this swashbuckling story about Emilio Salgari’s legendary seafarer, known as the "Tiger of Malaya". In fact, anyone who enjoys swords flashing and sails billowing in a consummately produced period drama will likely find it wildly entertaining.
What Is Sandokan About?
Adapted from the historical novel series of the same name by 19th century Italian author Emilio Salgari, Sandokan is about a Malaysian pirate who navigates the South China Sea. His search for loot and quest to reclaim his throne as Prince of Borneo lead him on many adventures.
He rescues captive tribespeople, romances the daughter of a foreign dignitary, and does battle with the imperialist East India Company of Britain. Like most Italian productions, Sandokan’s real-life filming locations were in Italy, although most of the series is set around the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, in 1841.
It stars Turkish actor Can Yaman as the charismatic title character, alongside an impressive international cast, including the Mummy trilogy’s John Hannah, and Those About to Die’s Angeliqa Devi. Much like Shōgun, Sandokan is a remake of a previous television series, although it manages to stamp its own mark on the story, independent of the original 1976 version.
Why Sandokan Is Already So Popular
Despite being an Italian production, Sandokan has soared past various big-name English-language releases such as Stranger Things and Run Away, straight into Netflix’s global and American top tens. It’s currently riding high at number 7 on the U.S. chart, and may well climb even higher in the coming days.
There are several factors which have led to its success, including high-quality English dubbing, the inclusion of several native English-speaking characters, positive word-of-mouth buzz after Italian TV first aired it back in December, and the widespread appetite for action adventure period dramas on streaming right now. Then, of course, there are the show’s clear similarities to Shōgun, thematically and stylistically.
What Makes Sandokan The Perfect Shogun Replacement
As much as we’re all looking forward to Shōgun season 2’s spectacular action sequences, we’re likely going to have to wait up to two more years for the season to arrive. Shooting has just started in Vancouver this month, and there’s a lengthy post-production schedule planned for the show’s extensive VFX process.
Given how long Shōgun fans have to wait for season 2 to be produced, Sandokan has arrived on Netflix at the perfect time. Although it’s set around 240 years after Shōgun, this period drama is stylistically very similar, and even features its own Blackthornesque seafaring British adventurer, in the shape of historical figure Lord James Brooke.
English (US) ·