Netflix's Undercover star Frank Lammers takes the helm of new pirate drama Salé — Here's everything to know

Frank Lammers, the Dutch actor who made Netflix thrillers Undercover and Ferry global hits, is trading drug lords for cannons and corsairs. In the new historical drama Salé, he’ll embody Jan Janszoon, a real 17th-century Dutch sea captain who converted to Islam, became Murat Reis, and rose to power as one of North Africa’s most feared pirate admirals.

A European epic with salt in its veins

Salé isn’t a small port-side drama. It’s a €15M per season, two-season odyssey created by Film Partner Iceland and Sweden’s LittleBig Productions, with distribution led by Green Lighting Studio.

Shooting will unfold across Iceland’s stark coasts and Morocco’s sun-bleached ports, with dialogue weaving English, Icelandic, Arabic and Dutch. Producers plan to ride Iceland’s tax incentives and secure hefty pre-sales at MIPCOM.

At its core, the show resurrects the little-known “Turkish Raids” of 1627, when Barbary pirates stormed Iceland’s Westman Islands and coastal villages, capturing roughly 400 people and selling them into slavery.

Through this violent tide, the series follows an Icelandic mother, Gunnur, and her daughter, Gríma, torn apart in the slave markets of Salé and forced to reinvent themselves. One clings to her Christian past while the other embraces Islam and the perilous new world that claims her.

Frank Lammers at the helm

For Frank Lammers, Janszoon is more than a swashbuckler. He’s a man who reinvented himself across continents: Dutch sailor, Muslim convert, empire builder and father.

“Playing him means exploring the extremes of human ambition and adaptability and asking if you can ever truly escape who you were,” Frank Lammers said.

His Dutch roots bring authenticity, while his Netflix profile gives the series a ready global audience hungry for the next Vikings or The Last Kingdom.

Producers Anna G. Magnúsdóttir and Anders Granström consider Frank Lammers’ casting a tide-turning move:

“It elevates the entire project,”

Granström noted, pointing to his ability to anchor a character as contradictory as Janszoon, a man building an empire while wrestling with loyalty, faith and bloodlines stretched across Europe and Africa.

Why Salé could make waves

European television’s been searching for its next big historical obsession, one that mixes scale with a fresh angle. Salé steps into that space with an era rarely explored on screen and a perspective that goes beyond battles to examine faith, identity and survival.

Its Icelandic and Moroccan settings promise striking visual contrasts, while the multi-language approach signals a story built for global resonance. If Green Lighting Studio’s early sales push lands, the series could arrive already positioned as the continent’s next streaming export to rival Vikings or Barbarians.

Sailing toward 2027

With writer Margrét Örnólfsdóttir (Trapped, Prisoners) charting the story and big-budget ambition powering its decks, Salé aims to deliver a world of shifting identities, ruthless seas and empires built on captured lives.

Casting for Gunnur and Gríma is underway, with announcements expected in early 2026. Delivery’s planned for the third quarter of 2027, giving time to sharpen swords, rig sails and stoke anticipation for a pirate tale that promises both grit and grandeur.

If Undercover turned Frank Lammers into Netflix’s Dutch antihero, Salé could make him the face of Europe’s next sweeping historical adventure, one that smells of salt, gunpowder and reinvention on the high seas.