George is a brilliant app developer with an incredible intellect and an analytical mind. His life’s work – an app that can predict trends in global events – is a masterwork that puts him on the brink of great things. With Sarah, the love of his life, at his side, it looks like he’s got a great life ahead of him… and then he inexplicably finds himself reliving the same six months over and over again. It turns out a latent mutant variation has awoken in him that allowed him to perceive the time loops triggered by The Lazarus Project. Once the Project learns of his existence, he is recruited to their cause and trained to be a highly efficient asset to them, both on the field and off. But when fate deals him a devastating hand, George finds himself willing to do whatever it takes to turn back the clock – even if it means ending the world.

George is played by British actor Paapa Essiedu, who starred as Alex Dumani in the Sky Original crime thriller Gangs of London, and as Kwame in the critically adored I May Destroy You. He also recently took on the role of the demon Gaap in anthology series Black Mirror’s episode Demon 79.

Whip-smart and yearning for a life filled with spontaneity and adventure, Sarah is George’s world. She works as a schoolteacher in London and is sociable and flighty – more so than George might like, truthfully. As George begins experiencing the time resets, he experiences what life might be like without Sarah, and is dead set on never having to go through that again. Blissfully unaware of this, Sarah is about to become the spark that sets off a chain of events with the world’s fate on the line.

Sarah is played by Charly Clive, best known for her lead role as Marnie in the Channel 4 miniseries Pure. She also co-created her own acclaimed Edinburgh show Britney, about her experiences after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Dennis Rebrov is a former Lazarus agent and now one of the world’s most wanted terrorists. During his time with the agency, Rebrov fell in love with his colleague Janet and attempted to live a normal life with her. However, their attempts to start a family were met with tragedy and repeated trauma as a result of repeated time resets. Crushed by the experience, Rebrov went rogue and is determined to destroy the equipment executing the time jumps and allow the world to come to what he sees as a natural end. Even when outnumbered, he’s almost unstoppable – and with ever time jump he only gets more dangerous.

Rebrov is played by English actor Tom Burke, who is perhaps best known for his roles as Athos in the BBC adaptation of Alexandre Dumas classic The Musketeers, and for playing the title role in the crime drama Strike as Cormoran Strike.

Like her former partner, Rebrov, Janet is a former agent of Lazarus turned rogue. While she has not set out on the same destructive path as her ex-love, she has turned her back on the organisation and now lives in hiding, working for the rebel group “Blackbird”. She has a genius-level intellect and is one of the only people on Earth with knowledge on how the singularity that causes the time jumps actually works. Irrevocably damaged from her time with Lazarus, her allegiance is unknown.

Janet is played by British actress Vinette Robinson, who has previously appeared in Boiling Point, 2019’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and The Amazing Mr Blunden.

Erik Eriksen – better known as “The Dane” – is one of Lazarus’ best field agents. The Dane is a wrecking ball on the battlefield – perhaps ranking behind only Rebrov in terms of sheer physicality and takes direction without question. He doesn’t have the sheer intellect or cunning as agents like Archie or Shiv, but he’s someone you’d want on your side.

Erik is portrayed by Danish actor Lukas Loughran, who has also appeared in The Billion Dollar Code and 2020’s The Postcard Killings.

When George stumbles across Rudy in his search for the missing nuclear warhead known as “Big Boy”, he claims to be “the caretaker” put in place by the arms dealers selling on the stolen weapon. In reality, he’s a member of a mercenary group looking to take the bomb for themselves. All they need is the detonator that George is in possession of. But can he win George’s trust enough for him to share the code required to unlock it?

Rudy is played by Alec Utgoff, a Soviet-born English actor known for his roles in The Wrong Mans, Slow Horses and Stranger Things.

Laurence is a friend of George’s who talks him into coming to his house party in Camden (George hates Camden) on the promise that there’s a girl called Sarah he’ll really hit it off with. While no one at the party is aware of it, this party coincides with Archie and Ross’ infamous mission which sees time reset countless times. Seeing the party unfold over multiple different timelines, we see George and Sarah’s relationship is far from written in the stars and could have turned out differently very easily.

Laurence is played by Enyi Okoronkwo, who also appeared in writer Joe Barton’s previous series Giri/Haji, as well as 2022’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Writer and creator Joe Barton is best known as the writer behind the acclaimed BBC series Giri/Haji as well as the Netflix fantasy drama The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself. He began his career in film, and produced the screenplay for iBoy, The Ritual and Encounter.

Barton credits the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 as his inspiration for the series, stating “I’d been reading about the Cuban missile crisis and all these times where we’ve got so close to almost accidental destruction. To people accidentally letting off nuclear bombs, or a Russian submarine that thought something on the radar was something it wasn’t and couldn’t get in touch with their commanders. They had to choose whether to launch themselves. I think it’s crazy that mankind hasn’t accidentally destroyed itself. And then you start to think, ‘Well, maybe it has but it’s been undone…”

While the stakes in The Lazarus Project are undoubtedly high (end of the world high…), he mentions he was careful to not make the tone of the series too serious – “There’s definitely a more serious version of it we could have made. It’s a tightrope, essentially, that we’re going for, to have a certain sort of style of dialogue and writing … the stakes are real and the drama and all that stuff is real. But also it’s not super dour.”

Executive Producer and director Marco Kreuzpaintner is a German born and UK-based writer and director who as well as executive producing The Lazarus Project, would direct the first four episodes. His past work includes the 2007 film Trade – Welcome to America, the Prime Video original series BEAT, and two episodes of the sci-fi anthology series Soulmates. On being brought on for The Lazarus Project, Kreuzpaintner has said:

“It is rare to come across scripts that are truly original. With Joe’s scripts it was totally one of those situations. I was blown away by the characters, the twists, the various timelines, the scale of the story and how it unfolded. I knew straight away that I had to get involved.”

The Lazarus Project is the third series Adam Knopf has worked on with exec producers Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy, having also produced the 2021 Netflix series The One and War of the Worlds with Urban Myth Films. Adam’s past production credits also include The Pact, Dark Heart and Marcella.

The Lazarus Project’s editor Johannes Hubrich is another regular collaborator with director Marco Kreuzpaintner, having worked with him on previous projects BEAT, Bodies, Soulmates and the 2019 film The Collini Case.

Want to see more? - Read the official synopsis here >