Netflix announces cast for Boy Swallows Universe adaptation

Netflix has revealed the cast for the anticipated miniseries based on the bestseller Boy Swallows Universe.

Trent Dalton on the set of the Netflix adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe. Picture: Kane Skennar / Netflix

Simon Baker, Travis Fimmel and Phoebe Tonkin will lead the cast of the Netflix adaptation of best-selling novel Boy Swallows Universe.

Production began in Queensland on the eight-part coming-of-age miniseries. The story is based on Trent Dalton’s book, a semibiographical tale of friendship, love, family and growing up in working class Brisbane.

The role of young Eli will be played by Felix Cameron, who is best known for his work in Penguin Bloom, while Lee Tiger will portray Gus Bell.

The cast also includes Australian screen luminaries Bryan Brown, Anthony LaPaglia and Deborah Mailman.

In other supporting roles are Sophie Wilde, Christopher James Baker, HaiHa Le, Ben O’Toole, Zachary Wan, Millie Donaldson and Eloise Rothfield.

Trent Dalton on the set of the Netflix adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe, pictured at second right is, star Travis Fimmel. Picture: Kane Skennar / Netflix

Simon Baker is to play the role of Robert Bell. Picture: Toby Zerna

Boy Swallows Universe was originally to be adapted into a film when Joel Edgerton bought the screen rights in 2019. Netflix announced in March that it would now be a miniseries.

Edgerton remains an executive producer, alongside Troy Lum and Andrew Mason of production company Brouhaha, Sophie Gardiner of Chapter One and Kerry Kohansky-Roberts and Tony Bentley of Anonymous Content.

Master and Commander, Happy Feet and Hotel Mumbai screenwriter John Collee penned the scripts while Bharat Nalluri, Jocelyn Moorhouse and Kim Mordaunt will serve as directors.

When Netflix announced it was turning Boy Swallows Universe into a series, Dalton wrote on the streamer’s blog, “That sound you hear is my heart exploding. Internal fireworks popping and flashing in pinks and purples and golds.

“Let me scrape my jaw from the floor and whisper those words again and make sure this dream is true: Boy Swallows Universe is being adapted for the screen by Netflix.

“An epic, multi-part limited television series traversing the darkness of the Australian suburbs and the fabric of the human heart and stretching to the edges of the universe and our wildest dreams.”