Hercule: Where You’ve Seen the Poirot Prequel Cast Before

The BBC have announced it is making a series based on Agatha Christie’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot.

The series, simply titled Hercule, will star Edward Bluemel as a younger version of the moustachioed Belgian sleuth during his early days in London solving his first cases. After announcing Bluemel’s casting in June, the BBC also recently announced a slew of new names involved in the series—and it looks set to be a great cast.

Apart from Bluemel, we don’t yet know which roles they'll all be playing, though you might recognise a few of them already. Take a look at the Hercule cast so far, and find out where you’ve seen them before in the list below.

Edward Bluemel as Hercule Poirot

Edward Bluemel is one of Britain’s young rising stars. While you might recognise him from Amazon’s historical fantasy series My Lady Jane as the main love interest Lord Guildford Dudley, or from the BBC dramedy series We Might Regret This, his presence on screen has been steadily on the rise for over a decade.

After making the leap from stage to screen, Bluemel played a series of important side-characters in series like period drama The Halcyon, Sky’s fantasy series A Discovery of Witches, spy dramedy Killing Eve, Netflix’s coming-of-age dramedy Sex Education, and the streamer's 2022 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, where he played Captain Harville.

While Bluemel has already had ample experience playing characters in period settings, he also has the good fortune of already being part of an Agatha Christie production. In 2026, he played a leading role in Netflix's Agatha Christie's Seven Dials as the charming yet superficial man-about-town Jimmy Thesiger. 

While Bluemel has mostly played charismatic side-characters until now, his casting as Hercule Poirot certainly signals a progression in his career as a leading man. If he can get his Belgian-French accent and moustache twirl down, we will be in for a treat come 2027.

One to watch: My Lady Jane 

James D'Arcy

James D’Arcy is another British talent with a face you might recognise but not know exactly where to place. D’Arcy is mostly known for playing Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark’s butler (who later turns into Tony Stark’s AI butler) in Marvel’s 2015 Agent Carter series, and later reprised the role for Avengers: Endgame.

D’Arcy also appeared as Lee Ashworth, a murder suspect, in the second season of the acclaimed ITV mystery series Broadchurch. In addition, D’Arcy has become a collaborator with famed director Christopher Nolan, and has appeared in both Dunkirk as Colonel Winnant, and more recently in the Best Picture-winning film Oppenheimer as physicist Patrick Blackett.

One to watch: Argent Carter

James Nesbitt

James Nesbitt is one of Ireland’s most formidable exports and a name you certainly should know. His decades-long career spans a variety of roles across film and television, not least the acclaimed BBC mystery series The Missing, where he plays a father tortured by the disappearance of his son, and the Northern Ireland police procedural Bloodlands.  

Nesbitt is also known for early roles in films like 2002’s Bloody Sunday, 2005’s Match Point, and 1998’s Waking Ned Devine. And although it’s not as easy to recognise him due to costume makeup, you may also know Nesbitt from his stint on Middle-earth in the Hobbit films, where he played the dwarf Bofur.

One to watch: The Missing

Jack Gleeson

Jack Gleeson is most well known for his rage-inducing role as the evil Prince Joffrey in the acclaimed HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones. After Joffrey — whom Gleeson played so well, he became the subject of a period of intense internet hate — was mercifully killed off on GoT, Gleeson went on a hiatus from acting for six years.

In 2020, he made a comeback in a small part in Sarah Pascoe’s sitcom Out of Her Mind. In 2025, he played a main role in the crime drama Safe Harbour as Irish mob member Farrell Walsh, in Season 2 of The Sandman, playing the cruel trickster Puck, and in Netflix’s hit historical drama House of Guinness as Byron Hedges, a cousin and key business partner to the Guinness siblings.

One to watch: House of Guinness

Rebecca Rittenhouse

Rebecca Rittenhouse is an American actress known mostly for her roles in Mindy Kaling’s comedy series The Mindy Project, where she plays rival doctor Anna Ziev, and in the American oil dynasty series Blood & Oil, where she plays Cody LeFever.

You might also recognise Rittenhouse as Ainsley Howard in the 2019 TV series adaptation of Four Weddings and a Funeral, as well as from her role as cutthroat TV presenter Lexy Jones in the Netflix 2026 hit mystery-thriller series His & Hers, where she more than holds her own opposite Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal.

One to watch: His & Hers

Tamsin Greig

Tamsin Greig is a dramatic and comedic actor who has played a variety of roles both on screen and stage. Although she’s starred in many productions over her decades-long career, you might recognise her most from her role as Fran Katzenjammer in the iconic British sitcom Black Books, or more recently in the beloved series Friday Night Dinner as matriarch Jackie.

She also starred in the 2004 hospital-based comedy sitcom Green Wing as Dr Caroline Todd, and in the 2011 comedy series Episodes as Beverly Lincoln, one half of a husband-and-wife showbusiness duo who move to Hollywood to try to remake a famous British series into an American adaptation starring actor Matt LeBlanc.

One to watch: Black Books

Henry Ashton

Henry Ashton got his start as a fashion model and his big break on television in Season 7 of Outlander, where he plays Lieutenant Sandy Hammond in a couple of episodes. If you don’t recognise him from the historic Highlands, you might have seen him playing opposite Edward Bluemel in Amazon’s My Lady Jane as his brother, Lord Stan Dudley.

Ashton is also known for his roles in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, where he plays the wealthy student hiding a dark secret, Max Hastings. More recently, Ashton starred in the 2026 Game of Thrones spin-off series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as Daeron Targaryen.

One to watch: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Calvin Demba

Rising British star Calvin Demba is a multitalented actor, writer, and director. Since his start in 2011, he has released several projects from in front of and behind the camera—although you might recognise him most from the 2024 Netflix series Supacell about a group of South Londoners with superpowers.

His other on-screen projects include the 2013 comedy-drama series Youngers, where he plays an up-and-coming musician, and the 2020 BBC drama series Life, where he plays Andy, one of the residents in a converted Victorian house.

One to watch: Supacell

Phil Dunning

Phil Dunning is a British character comedian, writer, and actor, mostly known for his hit 2024 sitcom Smoggie Queens, in which he stars as the drag queen Dickie. The series was recently renewed for a third season, and Dunning also reprised the role for the 2026 spinoff chat show, The Dickie Show.

Dunning also had brief appearances in Mae Martin’s 2020 Netflix comedy series Feel Good as Professor Spink, and the 2022 BBC comedy-thriller Am I Being Unreasonable? as the eccentric Gavin. Other than his on-screen roles, Dunning has written and performed three standup shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, and voiced the character Declan in fellow comedian James Acaster’s mockumentary podcast Springleaf.

One to watch: Smoggie Queens

Mawaan Rizwan

Mawaan Rizwan is a British actor, writer, musician, and comedian who first found fame as a breakout YouTube star. His YouTube sketch comedy videos were an online hit and landed him his first television roles on series like DNN: Definitely Not Newsround and The Dog Ate My Homework. In 2015, he returned to Pakistan to film the BBC documentary How Gay Is Pakistan? exploring LGBTQ+ life in that country.

Rizwan has more recently become known for his standup, his memorable appearance on Taskmaster (Season 10), and for his surreal BBC comedy series Juice, which he wrote and stars in as Jamma, a young gay man trying to navigate 'commitment phobia', a new relationship, and his South Asian family in London.

One to watch: Juice

Guy Remmers

While Guy Remmers is a relative newcomer to the industry, you might recognise him from his only on-screen role to date — albeit a big one — in the ongoing hit Apple TV+ series The Buccaneers. Remmers plays Theo, the Duke of Tintagel, who meets and falls in love with Annabel ‘Nan’ St George after she moves from America to 1870s Gilded Age London.

One to watch: The Buccaneers