General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Treasure Island (2026 TV series)

Treasure Island is a 2026 six-part adventure drama television series adapting Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel of the same name, created for television by Robert Murphy and starring David Oyelowo as Long John Silver, Hayley Atwell as Bess Hawkins, and Tom Sweet as Jim Hawkins. It premiered on MGM+ in the United States on October 11, 2026 and on Paramount+ in the UK and Ireland the following day, with new episodes released weekly through mid-November.¹

Key fact	Detail
Format	Six-part adventure drama, roughly 44 minutes per episode, airing weekly on Sundays¹^•²
Premiere	October 11, 2026 on MGM+ (US); October 12, 2026 on Paramount+ (UK & Ireland); finale November 15/16, 2026¹
Creator	Robert Murphy, whose credits include Vera and Shetland¹
Lead cast	David Oyelowo (Long John Silver), Hayley Atwell (Bess Hawkins), Tom Sweet (Jim Hawkins), Jack Huston (Aaron Graham), Tomer Capone (Billy Bones)¹
Production	Produced by Playground; a Paramount+ and MGM+ original in association with Fifth Season¹
Filming locations	Bristol, United Kingdom and Tenerife, Spain³
Critical reception	11% average Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes from 9 reviews⁴

Spoilers

Premise

The series follows teenager Jim Hawkins and his mother Bess after they come into possession of Captain Flint's legendary treasure map at the Admiral Benbow Inn in Bristol. Looking for the treasure, they sail across the Atlantic on the two-masted schooner Hispaniola, where Jim meets Long John Silver, a sailor of great ambition and layered character whose schemes for the treasure bring the loyalties and goals of the characters into conflict, as well as Aaron Graham, a British agent pursuing his own agenda.³^•⁵

The adaptation makes two prominent departures from the novel. Bess Hawkins, Jim's mother, is elevated to a central role and sails with her son, and the story is given a specific historical setting in 1788, with action moving across storm-battered Cornwall, the open sea, and a jungle island.⁶^•⁷ The series also gives Jim what one reviewer describes as a superhuman photographic memory, which he and Bess exploit for profit at their inn in the opening episode.⁶

Cast and characters

David Oyelowo as Long John Silver, a charismatic and ruthless survivor pursuing the treasure¹
Hayley Atwell as Bess Hawkins, Jim's fiercely determined mother¹
Tom Sweet as Jim Hawkins, the teenage protagonist¹
Jack Huston as Aaron Graham, a revolutionary spy who seeks to use the gold to upend colonial power¹^•⁷
Tomer Capone as Billy Bones¹
Craige Els as Mr Arrow, Tristan Sturrock as Captain Smollett, and Neil Pendleton as Mr Cameron¹

Episodes

The six episodes, titled as chapters, aired weekly. The first two chapters are "Chapter 1: The Admiral Benbow" (October 11, 2026), in which Jim and his mother set sail to seek a pirate's treasure, and "Chapter 2: Great Britain" (October 18, 2026), in which Bess targets Graham as Long John plots mutiny and Jim takes sides.⁹ Chapter 3, "The Wide Eternal Sea" (October 25, 2026), follows fracturing alliances as Bess and Graham play a cat-and-mouse game and Long John targets Jim.² Chapter 5, "Skeleton Island" (November 8, 2026), brings the search for the treasure to the island itself, and the finale, "Chapter 6: A Princesa De Aveiro" (November 15, 2026), has Jim turning the tables as a captive in an attempt to catch Long John before he can leave with the treasure.¹⁰

Production

The series was commissioned as a co-production between Paramount+ UK & Ireland and MGM+ in the United States, produced by Colin Callender's Playground in association with Fifth Season, which also handles global distribution outside the two launch territories.¹^•⁸ Production began in March 2026, with production services in Spain provided by Ánima Stillking.⁸

Jeremy Lovering (Slow Horses), William McGregor (The Buccaneers, His Dark Materials), and Paul Walker (Shameless) direct the six episodes, with Mark Hedges as producer. Executive producers are David Stern, Scott Huff, Colin Callender, and Daniel Gratton for Playground, joined by Robert Murphy and Jeremy Lovering.³ Paramount+ ordered the show thanks to Sebastian Cardwell, Deputy Chief Content Officer, UK, together with Paul Testar, Commissioning Editor for Paramount+ UK & Ireland, while at MGM+ production is supervised by Michael Wright, its global head, with Alec Strum, an original programming executive, working alongside him.¹

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds an average Tomatometer score of 11% based on 9 reviews.⁴ Reviewing for RogerEbert.com, Rendy Jones criticized the series for adding Bess Hawkins to the voyage, imposing late-18th-century historical accuracy on a story involving Skeleton Island, and adopting an overly gritty tone stretched across a six-hour adaptation, calling the result an alienating adaptation that never justifies its existence.⁶

Related film adaptation

A separate feature film adaptation of the novel is in development with director Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Jack Thorne, with Hugh Jackman attached to star as Long John Silver and Owen Cooper as Jim Hawkins. The project was announced in June 2026 after 20th Century Studios passed on the package, with Sony Pictures in negotiations to acquire it; as of October 2026 it was in pre-production with a planned theatrical release on November 11, 2027.¹¹^•¹² The series therefore reaches screens ahead of the Scott film.¹³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026