Suits wrapped up its nine-season run on USA in 2019, and yet the legal drama somehow enjoyed one of its most successful years to date in 2023, thanks to its arrival on Netflix. It became the most streamed series of the year, sparking NBCUniversal to order a new spinoff from creator Aaron Korsh, and fans are definitely pumped about the impending arrival of Suits: L.A., but let’s kick off a new round of celebrations now that former flagship lead Patrick J. Adams has landed his next big TV show.
Adams portrayed attorney Mike Ross for seven seasons and change on Suits, and followed that up with a couple of roles stemming from real-life stories: Disney+’s The Right Stuff and Prime Video’s A League of Their Own. (Sneaky Pete and Plan B were less reality-based.) Now, everyone with Netflix subscriptions will see him in another drama based on true events, Lockerbie, which will be co-produced by the streaming giant and the BBC.
The scripted drama will document the harrowing 1988 event that came to be known as the “Lockerbie bombing,” involving the transatlantic Pan Am Flight 103 exploding in the air above the Scottish town of the same name, killing hundreds of people. Beyond the tragedy, which is recognized as the largest terror attack within the U.K., the series will also focus on the years-long investigation that followed, which spanned both sides of the Atlantic, given that 190 of the 270 victims were Americans.
With a federal trial currently set for 2025 for one suspect who was indicted for participating in the bombing, the traumatizing event’s impact definitely hasn’t faded over time, and according to Deadline, the project will cover investigation details that stretch from the earliest searches for physical evidence all the way to the indictment made in 2022.
While no details were given about who Patrick J. Adams will be portraying in the new drama, we do know that he’ll be surrounded by plenty of familiar and talented faces. Check out the full list of Lokerbie cast members below:
- Patrick J. Adams (Suits)
- Connor Swindells (Sex Education)
- Merritt Wever (Godless)
- Peter Mullan (Ozark)
- Tony Curran (Mary & George)
- Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey)
- Eddie Marsan (The Pact)
- Lauren Lyle (Vigil)
- Andrew Rothney (The Undeclared War)
- Parker Sawyers (P-Valley)
- James Harkness (The Sixth Commandment)
- Khalid Laith (Vigil)
- Amanda Drew (Wolf)
Filming has already kicked off in Scotland for Lockerbie, which has novelist Jonathan Lee set as lead writing, and Chimericas filmmaker MIchael Keillor directing. The project owes much of its legitimacy to filmmaker Adam Morane-Griffiths, who was granted access to take part in extensive interviews with various authority figures from the Scottish police force as well as investigative agencies in the U.S., with a number of those interviews serving as the first time the men and women have spoken at length about the bombing.
Given how many eyeballs were on Patrick J. Adams throughout 2023, Lockerbie would be a winner if it lands even a percentage of that group. Not that he’s shied from the spotlight in the aftermath of Suits’ killer run on Netflix. To the contrary, in 2024 already, he reunited with Gabriel Macht for the Globes as well as for a Super Bowl commercial, at which point they offered advice for the spinoff cast. He’s not currently in talks to appear in Suits: L.A. at all, but hopefully that’ll change in time.
It’s not clear when Lockerbie will hit Netflix’s upcoming schedule, but stay tuned for more details. And try not to get confused when updates come out about that other upcoming streaming series about the bombing, because Peacock is indeed producing one starring Colin Firth.
