A first trailer has arrived for This Is Not a Murder Mystery, a six-part whodunit set among Surrealist luminaries in the 1930s, teasing a country-house gathering that turns deadly and a promise that “everyone’s a suspect.” The footage introduces a lavish English estate, masked rituals, and a body that upends a weekend of art and ego, positioning the series as a stylized period thriller with a mischievous streak.
Led by director Hans Herbots with co-director Matthias Lebeer, the drama follows a young René Magritte, invited to an elite exhibition where fellow guests include Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, Man Ray, and Max Ernst. When a woman is found dead, the rising painter is pulled into an investigation that folds dream logic into classic detection. Creators Christophe Dirickx and Paul Baeten script the series from an original idea by Lebeer and Dirickx. StudioCanal is handling international sales.
The cast features Pierre Gervais as Magritte, with Stephen Tompkinson, Florence Hall, Aoibhinn McGinnity, Geert Van Rampelberg, and Lauren Versnick among the ensemble. Production companies include Panenka and Ireland’s Deadpan Pictures, with broadcast partners across Belgium and beyond. VRT says the show is slated to air domestically in 2025 following a late-2024 wrap, signaling a broader European rollout to follow.
Beyond the trailer’s “suspects everywhere” framing, the project’s hook lies in how the crimes echo the artists’ own work. Materials from regional backers describe murders staged with references to Surrealist imagery, while the production’s notes emphasize a “visually stunning and surprising” approach rather than museum-piece reverence. The result, based on early synopses, aims to fuse a locked-estate puzzle with the playful, disorienting grammar of interwar avant-garde art.
The series has been in the works for several years and entered post-production by spring 2025. Recent industry updates highlighted the tonal tightrope: a period piece that treats Dalí’s flamboyance and Magritte’s restraint as story engines, while staging a murder game that keeps genre mechanics front and center. The trailer’s timing suggests festival and market play as distributors firm up release plans outside Belgium.
