Nautilus is a ten-part adventure drama television series created by James Dormer. It is a reimagining of the 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne, presenting an origin story for Captain Nemo, an Indian prince-turned-crusading scientist.
In August 2023, after filming was complete, it was announced Disney+, the original distributor, would not release the series. In August 2024, Amazon Prime Video acquired the series for distribution in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where the series was released on 25 October 2024.
Contents
Premise
The year is 1857, and the British East India Mercantile Company currently wields more power than any nation on Earth, thanks to its private armies and navy, while stealing the riches of the nations they've subdued. In Kalpani, India, a massive submersible ship, the Nautilus, is being secretly built by the Company using slave labour from the Colonial prison. Although originally designed as a vessel of undersea exploration, the Company intends to arm the Nautilus and use it as a new type of warship. One of the prisoners forced to build the Nautilus is Nemo, who also designed the Nautilus's engines, but who has also been planning a prisoner uprising in order to seize the Nautilus and use it to escape. However, when plans are announced to have the Nautilus depart for Bombay days earlier than expected, Nemo and his followers still manage to successfully take over the Nautilus and escape out to sea. Now hunted by the East India Mercantile Company and its vengeful Director Crawley, both of whom want the Nautilus back and Nemo dead, Nemo and his motley crew sail beneath the seas on a mission of retribution and vengeance to utterly destroy the power of the Company...and the Company itself.
Cast
Main
Shazad Latif as Captain Nemo
Georgia Flood as Humility Lucas
Thierry Frémont as Gustave Benoit
Pacharo Mzembe as Boniface
Arlo Green as Turan
Tyrone Ngatai as Kai
Ling Cooper Tang as Suyin
Andrew Shaw as Jiacomo
Ashan Kumar as Ranbir
Chum Ehelepola as Jagadish
Céline Menville as Loti
Cameron Cuffe as Lord Pitt
Kayden Price as Blaster
Damien Garvey as Director Crawley
Benedict Hardie as Edward Cuff
Jacob Collins-Levy as Captain Youngblood
Luke Arnold as Captain Billy Millais
Darren Gilshenan as Punch
Guest
Richard E. Grant as the Maharajah of Karajaan
Anna Torv as Revna
Leeanna Walsman as Hilda
Noah Taylor as Captain Mogg
Muki Zubis as Casamir
Adolphus Waylee as Absalom Boston
Nicholas Hope as Dr Skinny
Production
Development
In August 2021, it was announced that Disney+ had ordered Nautilus, a ten-part television series about the origin of Captain Nemo and his submarine, the Nautilus. James Dormer writes the series, based off a treatment by Mark Stay, and also serves as executive producer with Xavier Marchand, Anand Tucker and Johanna Devereaux. Moonriver TV and Seven Stories produce the series. Michael Matthews joined as director in November 2021. Cameron Welsh joined as series producer and Chris Loveall joined as executive producer in February 2022; Colleen Woodcock and Daisy Gilbert were added as executive producers one year later.
Casting
Shazad Latif was cast as Captain Nemo in November 2021. In February 2022, Georgia Flood, Thierry Frémont, Pacharo Mzembe, Arlo Green, Tyrone Ngatai, Ling Cooper Tang, Andrew Shaw, Ashan Kumar, Chum Ehelepola, Céline Menville, Kayden Price, and Damien Garvey were cast. In May 2022, Richard E. Grant joined the cast as a guest star. Muki Zubis, Benedict Hardie, Jacob Collins-Levy, Adolphus Waylee, Cameron Cuffe and Luke Arnold also joined the cast.
Filming
Filming began in mid-February 2022 at Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Queensland. The series was expected to wrap in January 2023. The series filmed at The Old Museum in Brisbane in May 2022, and at the Queensland Parliament House in September. Filming was previously set to begin in December 2021. Ben C. Lucas directed episodes 5, 6, and 7, while Isabelle Sieb directed 3 episodes of the series.
Release
Nautilus is distributed worldwide by Disney Entertainment. The series was originally slated to be released on Disney+ in the United Kingdom before it was announced that it would not be moving forward with the series. It first aired on SVT Play in Sweden on 12 June 2024.
In August 2024, Amazon Prime Video acquired the series for release in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it premiered on 25 October 2024. All episodes were released simultaneously. In other European countries, the full series was released on 18 October 2024. (Except in France, where it was released on 12 August 2024, on France 2 channel)
In September 2024, Stan announced that it had acquired the series for Australia, where it was released on 25 October 2024.
In October 2023, AMC announced it had acquired the series for broadcast in the United States and Canada, where it premiered on 29 June 2025.
Reception
In the United Kingdom, the series had topped Amazon Prime's chart in its debut week, according to the director of the last three episodes in October 2024. In the United States, the series debuted with 2.6 million viewers in June 2025, making it AMC's most‑watched premiere since The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (2024).
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 79% "fresh" approval rating based on 14 reviews. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 65 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating a "generally favorable" reception.
