There's something addictive about a well-cut teaser—thirty seconds that can make you question whether your evening plans should now involve Florence, Sardinia, and a little cryptography. Sky TV has just unveiled the first teaser trailer for The Iris Affair, a glossy, high-stakes chase thriller from Luther creator Neil Cross, and it lands with that particular cocktail of prestige packaging and pulpy promise.
The premise is simple, but the game is not. Enigmatic genius Iris Nixon (Niamh Algar) cracks a sequence of online puzzles—already more interesting than another cop procedural—before colliding with Cameron Beck (Tom Hollander), a smooth-talking entrepreneur who may or may not be grooming her for darker ends. She accepts his invitation to unlock a dangerous piece of tech, realizes the potential fallout, and promptly steals the journal containing the activation sequence. Cue: Europe-wide pursuit. Cross shifts the chessboard from Florence's piazzas to Sardinian hideouts to Rome's restless streets, a jet-setting trajectory that feels part The Da Vinci Code, part Hitchcock.
And then there's the tone. The teaser is slick—very slick—but not immune to the “cheesy TV” factor. Sun-drenched drone shots, moody close-ups, and cryptic one-liners that could easily tip into parody if not handled with care. Algar, however, grounds it. She has that rare screen intensity, a sharpness that makes even a line about “codes that matter” land like a dare. Hollander, meanwhile, is in his element—charming, calculating, always two moves ahead.
Behind the camera, Cross pulls in a strong team. Episodes are directed by Terry McDonough (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and Sarah O'Gorman (The Last Kingdom), with scripts co-written by Susan E. Connolly and Ian Scott McCullough. Produced by Wildside and Sky Studios, the series stacks its cast with Kristofer Hivju, Harry Lloyd, Debi Mazar, and Sacha Dhawan—names that hint at a tonal range from gravitas to outright scene-stealing.
It's worth remembering: Neil Cross' Luther redefined the British crime series landscape by blending pulp thrills with jagged psychology. When he falters, it's often because the style overreaches the substance. The Iris Affair looks poised on that knife's edge—equal parts enticing and precarious. Maybe it'll pull off the magic trick. Maybe it won't. But this teaser, for all its gloss, is enough to spark curiosity.
The Iris Affair will stream on Sky and NOW in the UK in fall 2025. Until then, here's the first teaser: Watch on YouTube.
What Stands Out from The Iris Affair Teaser
Algar's intensity
She sells the premise—every darting glance and clipped line feels charged.
Neil Cross' fingerprints
The DNA of Luther is here: moral ambiguity, cerebral duels, a chase wrapped in noir gloss.
Italian backdrops
Florence's piazzas, Sardinia's coastlines, Rome's labyrinthine streets—the geography isn't just set dressing, it's part of the chase.
The cheese factor
For every sharp beat, there's a line or shot that teeters on cliché. It could sink or save the series.
A loaded supporting cast
Kristofer Hivju and Debi Mazar aren't just filler—they're the kind of faces that could shift the whole dynamic.
