About “Sandokan” in a few words:

Sandokan (2025) reimagines the classic adventure saga as a modern, gritty series set in Southeast Asia during the age of colonial empires. Pirates, rebels, and imperial forces collide as Sandokan rises as a symbol of resistance against British rule. Between jungle battles, shifting alliances, and forbidden romance, the show mixes action, politics, and emotion without losing its pulpy soul.

Meet the characters from Sandokan

Sandokan

Sandokan is the thunderbolt at the heart of the story — pirate prince, fearless leader, and romantic rogue all rolled into one. He rides a ship like it’s an extension of his body, duels like it’s poetry, and somehow always has one more impossible plan up his sleeve. Loyal to his crew in a way that makes you want to cry, but also brooding and prone to dramatic monologues on moonlit decks (yes, he’s a bit theatrical). He hates colonizers with a white-hot passion but also collects tiny porcelain cups for reasons no one understands.

Lord James Brooke

Lord James Brooke is the stiff-upper-lip colonial officer who thinks order is a religion. He’s polished, strategic, and annoyingly principled, like someone who irons his morals before leaving the house. You can see the genuine kindness in him—he’s not a cartoon villain—but he’s also a man of empire, and that makes him complicated (and occasionally blind). He has an unhealthy love of clocks and maps and will argue geography at dinner; also he drinks his tea the wrong way sometimes, very Britishly.

Sergeant Murray

Sergeant Murray is the gruff, chain-smoking military backbone who swears like a sailor but softens around animals. He barks orders, knows every trick of the shoreline, and somehow remembers everyone’s birthdays — which is both suspicious and sweet. He’s fiercely loyal to his comrades and has a terrible habit of telling three-hour stories that somehow get emotional at the end. Also, he keeps a pocketful of drafting pencils for reasons he’ll never explain, and once cried during a thunderstorm, don’t tell him I said that.

Anthony

Anthony is the scrappy young swordsman with more heart than sense — you can see his courage and his tendency to leap before thinking from a mile away. He’s charmingly awkward around women, constantly loses his hat, and has a laugh that’s slightly high and entirely infectious. He idolizes Sandokan but also blurts out the wrong thing to his face all the time, which you can’t help but love. Oh and he keeps a battered lucky coin in his boot that he insists is cursed but also kisses for luck, which is very Anthony.

Lord Guillonk

Lord Guillonk is pure aristocratic malice disguised as etiquette — always a bow, always a grin, always a plan to sabotage someone’s life. He fancies himself a man of taste: loves opera, collects orchids (which he waters with very expensive water), and wears scarves just to be spiteful. Underneath the powdered wig is a snake that writes beautiful letters full of poison—metaphorical and sometimes literal, I’m pretty sure. He’s petty, theatrical, and has a tendency to monologue when he thinks he’s winning, which he isn’t, usually.

Lady Frances Guillonk

Lady Frances Guillonk looks like porcelain and smiles like a widow but actually keeps a ledger of emotional investments that would make a banker proud. She’s elegant, quietly sharp, and very good at arranging flowers so people underestimate her — never underestimate her. She drinks tiny cups of something that might be tea and might be something stronger, and crochets in the middle of crises like a piano-wire assassin. Sometimes she seems fragile and sometimes she is the cruelest thing in the room, in that deliciously scary way that stays with you.

Sani

Sani is the silent shadow-in-the-water type — slim, quick, with eyes that miss nothing and a grin that appears when trouble smells like victory. A scout and swimmer, she slips through nets and senses tides like they’re gossip; also she whistles oddly tuneful sea-shanties when nervous. She’s fiercely protective, almost feral in loyalty, but will also spend a night teaching a rookie to tie knots because she has a soft spot, don’t ask. She carries a shell her mother gave her and sometimes talks to it when the moon is full, which I think is adorable and slightly eerie.