BBC Buys The Sentinels
- The BBC acquired an eight-part French drama adaptation of the sci‑fi/wartime graphic novels 'The Sentinels.' (deadline.com) - The deal covers a full eight-episode series produced in partnership with Studiocanal. (deadline.com) - This is one of the clearest comics‑to‑screen moves in today’s slate of graphic-novel adaptations. (deadline.com)
The BBC has bought U.K. rights to *The Sentinels*, an eight-part French drama that turns World War I into a super-soldier story. (bbc.com) The series will run on BBC iPlayer and BBC Four after a deal with Studiocanal announced on April 20, 2026. Broadcast reported the rights are exclusive in the U.K. (bbc.com) (broadcastnow.co.uk) *The Sentinels* is based on Xavier Dorison and Enrique Breccia’s French graphic novels *Les Sentinelles*. In the TV version, a wounded soldier named Gabriel Ferraud is recruited into a secret military program and injected with a serum that makes him stronger, faster and harder to kill. (deadline.com) (studiocanal.com) The show mixes war drama, espionage and science fiction instead of treating the source material as a conventional superhero adaptation. Canal+ described the setting as a reworked First World War shaped by technology and the supernatural. (bbc.com) (canalplus.com) That matters for the BBC because the acquisition adds a French-language genre series to BBC Four and iPlayer at a time when British broadcasters are leaning harder on imported scripted drama. Nick Lee, the BBC’s head of programme acquisition, said the series is “fully immersive” and “drenched in adrenaline.” (bbc.com) It also extends the screen life of a comics property that Canal+ launched in France on September 29, 2025, after the project was announced as an adaptation in 2023. French trade coverage said the season was built as eight episodes of 52 minutes. (canalplusgroup.com) (actuabd.com) The production comes from Federation Studios France and Esprits Frappeurs, with Guillaume Lemans creating the series with Xabi Molia. Thierry Poiraud and Édouard Salier directed, and Raphaëlle Richet is among the writers. (broadcastnow.co.uk) (seenit.co.uk) For viewers, the sale means a French alternate-history comic adaptation that already aired at home is now headed to a wider English-speaking audience through the BBC’s two main non-English drama outlets. The next step is simple: BBC Four and iPlayer now have the series on their 2026 slate. (bbc.com)
