The star will play a man who becomes an unwitting part of a vast global conspiracy. The series is based on a 1915 novel by John Buchan, which was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie.

The series will reunite Cumberbatch and Edward Berger, who worked together on Showtime’s Patrick Melrose (both earned Emmy nominations for the show). Berger will direct The 39 Steps, and Mark L. Smith (The Midnight Sky, The Revenant) will write. Anonymous Content, Chapter One Pictures and Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch banner are producing.

The Netflix series will set The 39 Steps in the present. Cumberbatch plays Richard Hannay, an ordinary man who becomes a pawn in a vast conspiracy to reset the world order.

Cumberbatch and his SunnyMarch partner, Adam Ackland, will executive produce with Berger, Smith, Chapter One Pictures’ Sophie Gardiner, Syndicate Entertainment’s Cliff Roberts and Anonymous Content’s Keith Redmon.

Cumberbatch is coming off The Mauritanian and will reprise the Doctor Strange character in two upcoming Marvel movies: Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Sherlock star’s recent credits also include 1917 and HBO’s Brexit. He and SunnyMarch are repped by UTA, John Grant of Conway van Gelder Grant and Sloane Offer.