Late last year, Netflix announced it had picked up a new “innovative” heist series based on a true story. Tati Gabrielle, Jai Courtney, Giancarlo Esposito, and Rufus Sewell are attached to the show which has wrapped filming. Here’s a rundown of everything we know about Netflix’s Jigsaw series.
Note: this article is a live preview of Jigsaw which we first published on September 16th, 2022 where we broke the news alongside Hollywood trades. We have updated the piece to expand on additional information as time goes on.
Here’s a quick rundown on what you can expect from the series:
“Spanning 24 years, the series centers around the largest heist ever attempted, and the vengeance, scheming, loyalties, and betrayals that surround it. It’s loosely inspired by the real story where $70 billion dollars in bonds went missing in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy.”
The NYPost has an excellent primer for the series that looks into the issue of the bearer bonds being lost to Hurricane Sandy which occurred between October 22nd and November 2nd, 2012.
Who’s behind Jigsaw on Netflix?
Eric Garcia (known for Matchstick Men, Repo Men, Anonymous Rex) serves as creator, showrunner, and executive producer on the project.
Producing the series are Automatik Entertainment (Fred Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Justin Levy) and Scott Free Productions (Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker and Jordan Sheehan).
Among the directors attached to the show include:
- José Padilha who will direct the pilot episode and the second episode. He’s best known for serving as a creator, director and executive producer on Netflix’s The Mechanism.
- Everardo Gout (unconfirmed) will direct two episodes in the series. Following Jigsaw, Gout is moving onto direct Netflix’s American Jesus Millarworld adaptation.
- Mairzee Almas (unconfirmed) will also direct two episodes of the show. Her credits includes Netflix’s The Sandman (she’ll direct episode 6) and worked on Netflix’s Shadow and Bone and Locke & Key.
Who is in the cast for Netflix’s Jigsaw series?
Cast grid for Netflix’s Jigsaw Series
- Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad and The Boys) will play Leo Pap who is described as “whip-smart, intense and driven, with an engineer’s mind and a meticulous eye for detail.” He’ll play a thief who has been in the game a long time and while he had the chance to get out, he failed to take the opportunity costing him anything.
- Paz Vega (Sex and Lucía, Spanglish) is a well-known Spanish actress who will play Ava Mercer. She plays an attorney who is both a killer in the courtroom but also knows hows to handle herself outside too.
- Rufus Sewell (Dark City, will also appear in Netflix’s The Diplomat) as Roger Salas a former thief who has reinvented himself as a top-tier security expert. Also described as a salesman with an uncanny ability to manipulate people to his ends.
- Tati Gabrielle (The 100) as Hannah Kim a chameleon who flows between the world of high-stakes finance and low-lying crime.
- Peter Mark Kendall (The Americans, Chicago Med) as Stan Loomis a small-time smuggler with a big-time passion for life’s epicurean pleasures
- Rosaline Elbay (Ramy) as Judy Goodwin the crew’s demolitions specialist
- Jai Courtney (Terminator Genisys, Divergent) as Bob Goodwin a chest-puffing alpha male with a knack for safecracking and pushing people’s buttons.
- Niousha Noor (#Persianize) as Nazan Abassi the FBI Agent “who is the raging fire that threatens to burn our crew of thieves down”.
Beyond this initial cast list, we also now know the following have also joined the cast:
- Hemky Madera (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Carlos
- Stacey Oristano (Bunheads) as Barbara Loomis
- Whit Washing (Just Getting Started) as Ted Gough
- Max Casella (Jackie) as Taco
- Robinne Lee (Hitch) as Lily
- James Augustus Lee (Ecclesiastes) as Cade
Where is Jigsaw in production at Netflix?
Jigsaw is filming mostly in Brooklyn at Netflix’s new state-of-the-art New York Studio that’s named Bushwick Studio. It’s a brand new location for Netflix which opened its doors in the summer of 2021 and therefore, Jigsaw is one of the first major series to be filmed there. The studio is part of Netflix’s $100 million pledge for the city.
Netflix Bushwick Studio – Picture: Netflix
According to production listings seen by What’s on Netflix, the show began filming on September 1st, 2021, and wrapped on March 16th, 2022.
Throughout early 2022, we got snippets of news from both eye-witnesses and local news reports that the show was filming in and around Brooklyn.
Huntington Now reported in January 2022 that the series took over The Dix Hills Diner and the neighboring Gold Coast Jewelry & Pawn on East Jericho Turnpike
As we mentioned, a number of eyewitnesses caught the show filming and shared the news on social media. They caught the series filming in 28 Liberty Street (around the One Chase Manhatten Plaza), Fulton and Nostrand in Brooklyn, Midtown East New York,
They filming Jigsaw on Fulton and Nostrand this morning lol
— Remy Ma (@Adi_Frenchy) March 4, 2022
They were filming a rain scene by my job. A show for Netflix next year called Jigsaw. pic.twitter.com/613zXSR3Ti
— 🇵🇷 Vember Judgement 🍮 (@VemberJudgement) October 16, 2021
They are filming the jigsaw movie pic.twitter.com/EbNWkyU49A
— 150 degree’s 🇭🇳 (@YourWifesHouse) September 14, 2021
👀 we’ll have to see pic.twitter.com/6BofwSzt2x
— CIN🦇 (@cinnzabunnz) December 10, 2021
A number of users on Facebook caught the show filming in and around Corey Beach in New York City.
“Filming Jigsaw on Netflix down at Corey beach!” on Facebook – January 19th, 2022
For more crime series in development at Netflix, check out our preview for those coming up here.
Are you looking forward to checking out Jigsaw on Netflix? Let us know in the comments down below.