Sam Claflin To Lead Harlan Coben’s Next Thriller

Already raced through Missing You and wondering when the next delicious Harlan Coben crime drama will be served up? While Netflix is busy rustling up another adaptation of one of Coben’s best-selling novels – this time, 2019’s Run Away – in time for 1 January 2026, Coben has turned to Prime Video to create another thriller. Here’s everything we know so far about Lazarus – including its star-studded cast.

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

What Is Lazarus About?

A tad different to the Coben thrillers we know and love (the writer calls it a ‘ghost story’), Lazarus will centre on a forensic psychologist who returns home after his father’s suicide – and stars having inexplicable disturbing experiences. As he delves into the mystery surrounding his father’s death, Lazarus is drawn deeper into the cold-case of his sister’s murder 25 years ago, too.

‘Lazarus is a psychological thriller with an emotional spine,’ shares writer Danny Brocklehurst, who also collaborated with Coban on Fool Me Once. ‘It’s about fathers and sons, love and loss. We have attempted to bring our trademark wit and warmth as well as twists galore. This is the first collaboration the team at Quay Street, Harlan and myself have done with Amazon and we are delighted to be partnering with them.’

The Cast

Daisy Jones & The Six star Sam Claflin returns to Prime Video to star as Laz, the central character in Lazarus. The full cast list (so far) includes:

• Sam Claflin as Laz, a forensic psychologist who has spent his whole life running from the pain in his past; only now he is finally forced to face it
• Bill Nighy as Dr Lazarus, father to Laz, Jenna and Sutton and a beloved figure within his community; in death, he wants his son to realise they are more similar than Laz thinks
• Alexandra Roach as Jenna, Laz’s living sister who has buried herself in the spiritual world aftr the pain of her sister Sutton’s murder
• Kate Ashfield as Detective Alison Brown
• Roisin Gallagher as Laura
• David Fynn as Seth McGovern
• Karla Crome as Bella
• Curtis Tennant as Aidan

‘Do I have to say more than the names Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, and Alexandra Roach to express my excitement about this limited series?’ Coben says. ‘Lazarus is a story of loss, redemption – and the eternal bond between a parent and a child, even after death.’

Is Lazarus Based On A Book?

Looking to get ahead and read the book before the series is released? Tough luck: this Coben series is an original idea from the crime writer for TV, not based on one of his many novels. ‘[Lazarus] was an original idea,’ the writer tells Radio Times. ‘I thought, “I could write this as a novel, but I’m seeing it as a TV series.” It’s a little more of a ghost story, very visual.’

This is not the writer’s first screen rodeo: while his most famous TV series (like Shelter, The Stranger, Stay Close, Fool Me Once and Missing You) are based on his novels, Coben’s popular 2018 series Safe was written for the screen.

Where Was It Filmed?

It’s another northern setting for Coben: Sam Claflin was spotted filming Lazarus in Manchester back in February 2024, with Lancaster seaside town Morecambe also used.

Release Date

No news just yet on when Lazarus will land on Prime Video, but rumour has it the series will land at some point in 2025, ahead of Coben’s next Netflix series…

Harlan Coben’s Run Away

Hot on the heels of Fool Me Once’s huge success in January 2024, Netflix revealed it was working on (at least) two more adaptations of Coben’s best-selling novels: Missing You (which landed on Netflix on 1 January 2025) and Run Away, which is still to be released.

So what can we expect from the latter? Based on the writer’s award-winning 2019 novel of the same name, Run Away centres on a father whose daughter ran away from home, addicted to both drugs and her abusive boyfriend. According to the novel’s synopsis, one day he bumps into her busking in Central Park – but she’s not the girl he remembers. This woman is drunk, frightened and clearly in trouble, but begging her to come home doesn’t work. Once again, she runs away – but this time, the father follows. And thus he is immersed in a dark and dangerous world where criminal gangs rule, drugs are the main currency, murder is commonplace, and nobody is safe.

No official confirmation just yet, but we think Run Away will be tweaked to a UK setting like Fool Me Once and Missing You, and land on Netflix on 1 January 2026.