Ian Rankin’s Rebus Returns To TV As A Viaplay Original

We have known that the Nordic streaming platform Viaplay, which recently started to serve in the UK, has been working on a new adaptation of Sir Ian Rankin's Rebus novels for a while. Now we also know who will play Edinburgh's most famous police detective.

Acclaimed actor Richard Rankin (the surname is just a coincidence), who appeared on TV series such as Outlander and Trust Me, joined the project to portray the role once successfully played by Ken Stott and John Hannah.

Richard Rankin

Viaplay says the series, based on the Rankin novels, will open with 40-year-old police detective John Rebus (Richard Rankin), who comes to a personal crossroads in Edinburgh after a fight with a notorious gangster.

Rebus struggles in an institution that is increasingly being controlled by business-oriented technocrats. Besides, he realizes that he is in an unhealthy relationship that he needs to end, and that the father role in his daughter's life has been replaced by his ex-wife's new rich husband. Now he has to find his way in both his private and professional life. In a world increasingly brutally governed by politics and class differences, he feels the system is getting more and more corrupt. If no one else is following the rules, he starts to wonder why should I. This is exactly what we would expect from John Rebus.

Richard Rankin says: “I am very proud to have had the opportunity to take on the role of Rebus. I'm a big fan of the series and Sir Ian Rankin. I feel very fortunate to have the honor of giving new life to this iconic Scottish character on television, and I will do everything I can to do justice to the role.”

John Hannah and Ken Stott, as John Rebus

Ian Rankin also states that Richard Rankin is the perfect choice for this role. It is said that the script of the series will be written by Gregory Burke, whom we know from the '71 movie.

Viaplay has announced that Rebus will be a recurring series and the first season will consist of six episodes. Rebus is expected to meet the audience in 2024.

Ian Rankin wrote 24 Rebus novels between 1987 and 2022. John Hannah and then Ken Stott played the famous detective in the TV series Rebus, which appeared before the audience for 4 seasons between 2000 and 2007. Almost 15 years have passed since this television adaptation. We are eagerly awaiting the new Rebus from Viaplay.

John Rebus Imagined by AI

Ian Rankin does not give detailed descriptions of John Rebus' physical appearance in the novels, but we know that Rebus is tall, slender, he has brown hair and green eyes and we have a few more details. We know that he is in love with music and literature, and is fond of alcohol and cigarettes. So, how do artificial intelligence tools that create visuals from text imagine Rebus according to the description in the novels? You can examine the images created by the Midjourney bot for John Rebus below.