MGM+ has officially greenlit The Black Tapes, an eight-episode supernatural horror series starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Dr. Richard Strand.
The announcement comes two days after Daniel Richtman revealed the casting on October 24.
The scooper didn’t name the role at the time. Now it’s confirmed: Coster-Waldau is playing Strand, the series lead.
Eight Episodes, Filming In January 2027
MGM+ ordered eight episodes, with production starting January 2027 in Vancouver.
MGM+ Studios is producing. Kearie Peak (Peak Pictures), John Rogers, and Jennifer Court (Kung Fu Monkey Productions) executive produce, and podcast creators Terry Miles and Paul Bae are writing and executive producing the adaptation.
Per the announcement, Strand is a brilliant psychiatrist with a mysterious past who teams with the obsessed, relentless scientist Alex Regan to debunk paranormal cases of hauntings, possessions, disappearances, and sinister legends, the infamous black tapes.
The cases lead the pair into a hidden occult world behind our own and a centuries-old apocalyptic conspiracy.
Podcast listeners know Alex Reagan as the journalist who hosts the show. The series version makes the character a scientist, and that casting hasn’t been announced yet.
The podcast launched in 2015, and MGM+ says it has passed 60 million downloads.
The series will stream on MGM+ in the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Latin America.
‘An Inspired Choice’ For Dr. Strand
“Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is an inspired choice for Dr. Strand, bringing exactly the intelligence, complexity, and mystery the role demands,” said executive producer Kearie Peak, who called the project a perfect fit for MGM+.
“The Black Tapes crafts a compelling story around our cultural fascination with the unexplained, while delivering the cinematic, classic storytelling that MGM+ audiences expect,” said Michael Wright, global head of MGM+.
“I was an early and passionate fan of The Black Tapes podcast,” said Rogers. “It’s a unique blend of truly unsettling horror and puzzle-box conspiracy mystery.”
With Bae and Miles in the writers’ room, Rogers continued, “we have a chance to both bring The Black Tapes to a new generation of genre fans and deepen and expand the mythos in ways that will surprise long-time supernatural horror fans.”
Coster-Waldau, Emmy-nominated for Game of Thrones, next stars opposite Jennifer Lopez in Netflix’s The Last Mrs. Parrish.
The greenlight adds a confirmed call to the Richtman hot streak.
Recently, he revealed Coster-Waldau starring in The Black Tapes, the MADiSON movie from Story Kitchen, the 1408 sequel bringing back Cusack and Jackson, the new Blair Witch movie’s plot and cast, Mattel developing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em, Pixel Chix, and Mindflex, the Mouthwashing movie at Sony’s Screen Gems, Mattel developing Wheeled Warriors and Leon Neon, the God of War series recasting Atreus and Thrud, the Clueless sequel series casting breakdown, Ghostbusters: Nightmare on 34th Street, what’s in the live-action Naruto movie, Sony’s live-action Kaiju No. 8, and the confirmed plot leaks for The Exorcist: Martyrs.
