Sandokan

He sat in Italy for four years waiting to be a pirate.

Can Yaman did not stroll onto Sandokan as a last-minute Netflix hire. He told Variety he had arrived in Italy four years before cameras rolled, waiting on a Lux Vide remake of Emilio Salgari's Tiger of Malaysia that kept slipping. He filled the gap with Violet Like the Sea. When the pirate job finally went, the relief came with a swagger he later walked back. "There's a nostalgia behind it," he said. "People had a lot of expectations about me, and that creates a huge burden of responsibility." Then the line Italian papers still chew. "Because when you're a handsome boy, people say stuff. But I think I'm kissed by God." latestnetflix.com's view is that he laughed and added, "Sandokan would think the same way."

This is the 2025 Rai 1 series. Eight English-language episodes. Not Kabir Bedi's 1976 sceneggiato. Jan Maria Michelini and Nicola Abbatangelo directed. Scott Rosenbaum of The Shield helped develop it. Ed Westwick plays pirate hunter Lord James Brooke. Alessandro Preziosi is Yanez. Cornish newcomer Alanah Bloor, who got the Marianna call at her grandfather's 70th, is the consul's daughter. What's-on-Netflix later flagged the season as Yaman's first major English-language lead.

A 30 million euro ship in a Roman parking lot.

Variety walked the Formello stage in February 2025. Three real boats. A 70-meter OLED wall. A dialogue coach barking "ransom, not ramson." Michelini said the first thing he told producers was to lock the 1976 theme. Luca Bernabei, Lux Vide's CEO, said they spent about 30 million euros on a show that was supposed to look like 60. His head of production had warned him not to go below 36. Fremantle wanted it cheaper. Bernabei called the cuts some of the toughest calls of his career. Calabria rebuilt Labuan at Lamezia Terme. They also shot Reunion Island. Yaman trained two months and dropped 10 kilos. He told Variety Sandokan fights like aikido. He dodges.

Rai 1 opened it December 1, 2025. LaPresse put the first night at 5.755 million viewers and 34 percent share, with a spike north of 45 percent among women 15 to 24. The eight episodes ran through December 16. Netflix US took the season on January 19, 2026. SlashFilm, citing FlixPatrol, had it at No. 10 in the United States by January 21, then No. 7. What's-on-Netflix later counted daily top tens in about two dozen countries.

Season 2 is confirmed and already late.

Director Jan Maria Michelini told La Repubblica they would start shooting between spring and summer 2026. He also said Kabir Bedi was a fan and that a cameo was hoped for, then schedules failed to match. Treat the Bedi bit as a wish, not a booking. Creative producer Elena Bucaccio told Fanpage the same May start and a 2027 air date, same eight-episode shape. What's-on-Netflix had already printed the renewal while the first run was still being sold as a mini-series. Then the calendar slipped.

In a Chi interview picked up in June 2026, Yaman said season 2 will happen, "but it takes time." He compared Italian TV to Turkey, where he said crews shoot 150 minutes in six days. "What you do in six years, we in Turkey do in four months." He said he would have preferred to shoot three Sandokan seasons in a row, because a body built for that role does not wait ten years. That is an actor grousing on the record, not a cancellation.

The trailer still sells the raid and the British consul's daughter. The gossip is the wait. Yaman sat through a delay, a hit, a Netflix bump, and now another Italian pause.