The Unlikely Murderer Coming to Netflix

Netflix is set to present the Swedish original series The Unlikely Murderer, based on the book of the same name written by Thomas Pettersson.

The five-part limited series is a fictional interpretation of how Stig Engström, the graphic designer who was named as the probable murderer of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, managed to avoid justice through a combination of audacity, luck and a confused police force until his death. Robert Gustafsson will star as Engström alongside Eva Melander, Mikael Persbrandt and Peter Andersson.

The cast also features Joel Spira, Emil Almén, Shanti Roney, Torkel Petterson, Henrik Norlén, Lia Boysen, Magnus Krepper, Björn Bengtsson, Peter Viitanen and Cilla Thorell. Wilhelm Behrman and Niklas Rockström wrote the script for The Unlikely Murderer, which has Charlotte Brändström on board as the conceptual director. The Swedish-language series will be produced by FLX.

The Unlikely Murderer will launch on Netflix in 2021.

Gustafsson said: “It’s an exciting challenge and a great responsibility to portray Stig Engström, but also, in a way, a form of therapy. Since I was at the same cinema as Olof Palme on the night of the murder, this case has always felt like an abscess that never disappears—and I’m not alone in feeling that. The theory about Engström is the most logical one and the one that the latest Palme investigation group has concluded as the right one. It is also the theory I believe—and now there is a chance for me to understand the event and examine Stig Engström’s character. It is an exciting and tragic story that affects Sweden and the Swedish people very much. The series explores and depicts the inadequate police work around the Palme Inquiry during the ’80s and ’90s. Stig Engström is very far from myself as a person, which makes this role attractive and challenging, and in playing this character I feel it will lead me to inner peace on these events.”

Tesha Crawford, director of Nordics original series at Netflix, added: ”This gripping and challenging case has intrigued people both in Sweden as well as in the rest of the world for more than 34 years. We are therefore very excited to bring Thomas Pettersson’s book to life, together with our long-term partners FLX. With Charlotte as the conceptual director and Wilhelm and Niklas writing, we have a really strong creative team and I can’t wait to introduce this Swedish series to the world.”

Brändström commented: “Certain events in the life of a nation can be considered seminal—changing the mindset and the trajectory of a country thereafter. I certainly remember the immense national trauma caused by the assassination of Olof Palme in February 1986, a trauma that still quietly rumbles on today. As such I leapt at the opportunity to return home to Sweden to direct the first two episodes of The Unlikely Murderer. The series is a powerful character study and poses a serious and credible hypothesis regarding the man who most likely killed Palme on that snowy winter night when the Prime Minister left a cinema in central Stockholm and was walking home. The very fact that Sweden’s head of government could, back then, live like any other citizen and eschewed chauffeur-driven vehicles or bodyguards in favor of public transport speaks to a now lost innocence in our national life.”