Jeremy Irons is starring in Netflix’s new World War II movie ‘Munich’

Jeremy Irons will lead the cast of a new historical thriller for Netflix.

The Brideshead Revisited star will play Neville Chamberlain, who was the British Prime Minister between 1937 and 1940.

Set in the autumn of 1938 as Europe stands on the brink of the Second World War, the movie is based on Robert Harris’s bestselling 2017 novel.

Irons will be joined by George McKay (1917), Robert Bathurst (Downton Abbey), Jannis Niehwöhner (The Turncoat), Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin), Erin Doherty (The Crown), Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann), August Diehl (A Hidden Life), and Marc Limpach (Bad Banks), with Martin Wuttke reprising his Inglourious Basterds role as Adolf Hitler.

The Hollow Crown writer Ben Power has adapted Robert Harris’s book for The Crown producer Andrew Eaton.

Harris commented: “It’s great to see an actor of Jeremy Irons’ stature playing Neville Chamberlain. This will be the first time a major movie has gone beyond the cult of Winston Churchill and tried to show Chamberlain in a more sympathetic light.”

Directed by Christian Schwochow (The Crown), Munich began filming in Germany and the UK in late 2020.

The official synopsis reads: “As Adolf Hilter prepares to invade Czechoslovakia, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Irons) is desperate to find a peaceful solution.

“British civil servant Hugh Legat (McKay) and German diplomat Paul von Hartmann (Niehwöhner), travel to Munich for an emergency conference. As they see if war can be averted — and at what cost — the two old friends find themselves at the center of a political plot, with their own lives in danger.”

Munich is expected to premiere exclusively on Netflix later this year.

The BBC and HBO are currently developing a new version of Brideshead Revisited, from the makers of Parade’s End and Poldark.

The original Brideshead Revisited series is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.