'Langdon' TV Series Based On The 'Da Vinci Code' And 'Inferno' Character Gets NBC Pilot Order

Call your mom and tell her her favorite beach read character is coming back, baby! Yes, that's right, Robert Langdon, the guy who is good at solving puzzles or something like that, is getting his own TV show. NBC just put in a pilot order for Langdon, based on the Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol. The Lost Symbol was the third book in the Robert Langdon series, following Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Those two books were previously adapted into films starring Tom Hanks and his weird wigs, along with Inferno, the book that came after The Lost Symbol. 

I know that at one point, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was a huge phenomenon. But does anyone honestly still care about Robert Langdon, the Professor of Art History and Symbology who keeps getting drawn into conspiracies involving history and the church? NBC sure hopes so, because they gave a pilot order to Langdon, which "follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy," according to Deadline. The script for the pilot comes from Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie, creators of The Crossing.

The show is an adaptation of The Lost Symbol, the third book in the Robert Langdon series. Here's the book's synopsis:

Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale. As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object-artfully encoded with five symbols-is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation... one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom. When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon-a prominent Mason and philanthropist-is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations-all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

This isn't the first attempt to bring Langdon to the small screen. At one point, there was a hope to adapt The Da Vinci Code into a season of the series 24. But Brown didn't want to sell the rights to TV then, and instead preferred the idea of a film adaptation. And that's what he got, with 2006's The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks. The film wasn't very well-received, but it still made money. Which means it got a sequel – Angels and Demons in 2009. That was followed by Inferno in 2016, and at that point, everyone seemed to agree that the film series had run its course.

With that in mind, will there still be an audience for this character, this time on the small screen? That's a mystery that has yet to be solved.