The Lost Symbol TV show: Ashley Zukerman on the origin story of Dan Brown’s hero

Adapted from novels that have sold 120 million copies, the popular character is finally getting his origin story.

Taking on a character that’s familiar and beloved to so many people can go two ways.

You can become overwhelmed with the pressure of the task, of meeting the expectations of heavily invested fans, or you could lean into that existing fandom.

Ashley Zukerman chose the second.

The Australian-American actor first attracted widespread attention in Melbourne-filmed cop show Rush before going on to be part of The Pacific, Underbelly: Squizzy and American series Manhattan, Designated Survivor and Succession.

But Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol will be his most high-profile project yet, taking on a role that has been previously played by Tom Hanks, three times – that of Robert Langdon, the symbologist hero in Dan Brown’s books which have sold over 120 million copies.

That’s tens of millions of fans who have voraciously consumed every pulsating word, infused with purpose, riddles and thrills.

“It’s really nice to work on something that’s meaningful to a lot of people, and I think they will be happy with it,” Zukerman told news.com.au.

“There are all these great shows, and great minds making these shows, and sometimes no one sees them because they get lost. It’s really nice to work on something that people already have a connection with.”

Zukerman says he hasn’t felt that pressure of stepping into such a devoted fanbase, probably because he hasn’t had the time with five weeks of production still left to go in the first season of the mystery thriller based on Brown’s 2005 novel.

It helps that he’s not being asked to follow Hanks and the commercially successful movies.

The Lost Symbol reframes Dan Brown’s novel as an origin story for Robert Langdon. Picture: Rafy/Peacock

Rather, the TV version has retooled the character so the series serves as an origin story. So, this is a younger Langdon who, unlike in the timeline of Brown’s books, hasn’t yet chased any melanin-challenged monks through the Louvre or discovered the agenda of the Illuminati.

“Because it’s an origin story, there’s some distance between us and the films and the books. I think the fans will see that the Robert Langdon we’ve built and the show we’ve built is something that will lead to the character that they love. We’ll lean on everyone’s love of the character.

The Lost Symbol’s Langdon is much less adept at heroics. Zukerman says his character is a sheltered academic whose one skill is he knows a lot of things, but he’s not exactly a pro at real-life sleuthing or taking down bad guys.

“He is armed with certain skills but none of those skills prepared him for what he’s about to experience. So, he’s challenged constantly and there’s obstacle after obstacle. From the beginning, we really didn’t want him to be a superhero.

“We wanted to leave space for the other characters to excel, and he actually struggles a lot.”

But that doesn’t mean the Langdon that readers and fans love isn’t in the series, streaming on Paramount+ in Australia. What The Lost Symbol is aiming for is the foundation of who Langdon will become.

“In my mind, he will become that slightly more stoic, slightly harder individual.”

Ashley Zukerman with Eddie Izzard in The Lost Symbol. Picture: Rafy/Peacock

The Lost Symbol is the third of Brown’s Langdon novels and is set in Washington DC. It kicks off when Langdon is lured to the Capitol, where his mentor Peter Solomon’s (Eddie Izzard) severed hand is gruesomely displayed in the Rotunda.

The hand is an invitation to play. Well, maybe less of an invitation and more of an extortion. A menacing force is demanding Langdon’s help in locating a so-called mystical portal somewhere in the city.

As a man of knowledge and hard facts, Langdon finds the ideas of mysticism anathema to his worldview. In that respect, it was something Brown told Zukerman that clicked the character together for him.

“Dan works closely with the writers and he was there the first time we were about to shoot the pilot, and we luckily got to have dinner with him,” Zukerman recalls.

“He said something incredibly astute to me at the time, but I wasn’t really able to hear it until months later and I’m still processing it even now that we’re shooting the last episodes. It’s that Langdon would love to have faith.

“In reading the books, it’s not something I ever saw because everyone reads through their own lens and their own life. If you read the books and you’re a person of faith, you’ll come to it from a different side than if you’re not.

“I always saw Langdon as a cynic. But then for [Dan Brown] to point out that he would actually love to have faith, I found that idea deeply interesting that his knowledge and intellect actually traps him and weighs down that feeling there might be something else in the world.

“That’s stuck with me.

“He starts from a place of not being able to believe anything that he doesn’t know to be true and it’s very hard to convince him of myth. But events keep challenging that idea.”

It’s all part of the journey from the Langdon of The Lost Symbol to the one fans are more familiar with.

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol starts streaming on Paramount+ from Friday, September 24

Share your TV and movies obsessions | @wenleima