‘Treasure Island’ First Look Reveals Hayley Atwell And David Oyelowo Setting Sail For MGM+ And Paramount+

Robert Louis Stevenson’s swashbuckling classic has inspired countless adaptations over the past century, but streaming platforms have largely left the pirate genre underexplored compared to other literary staples. That gap is about to close in a major way this fall.

MGM+ and Paramount+ have been building toward this new take on ‘Treasure Island’ since the project was first announced back in March, assembling a cast stacked with recognizable names from prestige television and franchise filmmaking alike. Production kicked off shortly after the announcement, with the six-part series charting the coming-of-age journey of teenager Jim Hawkins as he transforms from sheltered boy to emboldened young pirate.

Now, the first official images from the series have arrived, giving fans their initial look at Hayley Atwell, David Oyelowo, and Tom Sweet hitting the high seas together. The images show Sweet as Jim Hawkins, Atwell as his mother Bess Hawkins, and Oyelowo bringing the iconic Long John Silver to life, peg-leg, parrot and all.

Oyelowo takes on one of literature’s most enduring pirate villains, following his recent work on shows like ‘Silo.’ Atwell, best known to mainstream audiences for playing Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, steps into the role of Bess Hawkins, whose clever and decisive actions early in the story leave her son holding dangerous knowledge about a legendary treasure map.

Rounding out the main cast are Jack Huston as the debonair but duplicitous British agent Aaron Graham, and Tomer Capone, known for his role in ‘The Boys,’ playing Billy Bones. According to the official synopsis, Jim and Bess find themselves caught between Silver’s mix of charm and menace and Graham’s more polished, treacherous scheming as they sail aboard the ship Hispaniola.

The series was created for television by Robert Murphy, known for his work on ‘Vera’ and ‘Shetland,’ and is being directed by a team that includes Jeremy Lovering of ‘Slow Horses’ fame, along with William McGregor. Playground Entertainment is producing, with Fifth Season handling global distribution for the project.

Executives from both networks expressed clear enthusiasm when the series was first commissioned. Paramount+’s Cardwell told Variety that the adaptation brings fresh emotional depth and a striking contemporary edge to Stevenson’s classic, while MGM+’s Wright added that the series represents a perfect expression of the network’s brand, built around classic Hollywood storytelling reimagined for a modern audience.

‘Treasure Island’ is set to premiere on MGM+ in the United States on October 11, followed by its Paramount+ debut in the UK and Ireland one day later, on October 12. New episodes will roll out weekly from there, with the six-episode season wrapping up on November 15 in the US and November 16 across the UK and Ireland.

That release strategy mirrors how both platforms have approached other prestige originals, giving the adaptation room to build momentum week over week rather than dumping the entire season at once. Given the scale of the cast and the source material’s enduring popularity, both networks appear to be positioning this as a flagship fall offering.

With its emphasis on Bess Hawkins as a central figure rather than a background character, this adaptation appears intent on expanding Stevenson’s original narrative rather than simply retelling it beat for beat. That approach, paired with a genuinely stacked ensemble cast, suggests ‘Treasure Island’ is aiming to stand apart from the many adaptations that have come before it.

As October approaches, fans of both the source material and the assembled cast will finally get to see whether this new voyage across the Hispaniola lives up to the ambition behind it.

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