Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is a Disney Plus drama series set immediately after the 2005 London terrorist bombings. It focuses on the manhunt for a group of would-be terrorists and shows how innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was accidentally killed as a result.
Written and executively produced by Jeff Pope (Four Lives, The Reckoning), who wrote Philomena, Little Boy Blue and Stan and Ollie, among its stars are Edison Alcaide, Conleth Hill, Russell Tovey, Max Beesley, Emily Mortimer, Daniel Mays, Laura Aikman and Alex Jennings.
The four-part drama shows how Jean Charles (Edison Alcaide) was mistaken for a terrorist and shot dead by armed police officers at Stockwell tube station in London on July 22, 2005. His parents and other relatives worked as consultants on the series, so it’s guaranteed to be an emotional watch.
Here's everything you need to know about Disney Plus drama Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes…
Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes release date
The four-part series Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes launches on Disney Plus on Wednesday April 30 2025. We’ll update this page when an air date is announced.
Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes plot
Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is set 20 years ago, as London reels from the devastating suicide bomb attacks of 7 July 2005. The Met Police launches a large-scale counter terrorism operation to prevent further attacks. Unbeknownst to them, another terrorist cell plots an assault that could equal the devastation of 7/7. This second set of planned attacks fails, setting off one of the UK’s largest-ever manhunts and sparking a covert surveillance operation. As tension and uncertainty rises across the nation, a series of extraordinary events unfolds, leading to a critical misidentification. Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent young Brazilian electrician on his way to work, is mistaken for a terrorist and shot dead at Stockwell station. What follows is a family’s fight for justice and answers, and the long-fought struggle to bring clarity to a situation that is clouded by confusion, and silence.
Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes cast
The cast for Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes includes newcomer Edison Alcaide plays Jean Charles de Menezes. Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones, Power of Parker) plays Sir Ian Blair, then Met Police Commissioner. Russell Tovey (Years and Years) plays one of Blair’s Deputy Assistant Commissioners, Brian Paddick, alongside Max Beesley (The Gentleman, Hijack) who plays Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, leading on the Met’s investigation into the bombings.
Emily Mortimer (Paddington in Peru; The Newsroom) plays Cressida Dick, then Gold Commander of the surveillance operation pursuing those presumed responsible for the bombings. Daniel Mays (Des, The Long Shadow) plays Cliff Todd, Principal Forensic Investigator in the aftermath of the events of 7/7. Laura Aikman (Archie; Gavin & Stacey) also stars as Lana Vandenberghe, a secretary at the Independent Police Complaints Commission who plays a pivotal role in the unfolding of events. Alex Jennings (The Crown; The Lady in the Van) plays barrister, Michael Mansfield KC, who represents the family of Jean Charles de Menezes at the inquest into his shooting.
Is there a trailer?
No, but when one becomes available, we’ll add it to this page.
Behind the scenes and more on Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes
Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is written by Jeff Pope, produced by Kwadjo Dajan and directed by Paul Andrew Williams. Pope, Dajan and Williams also serve as executive producers. The series is executive produced for Disney+ by Lee Mason, Executive Director of Scripted.
Writer and Executive Producer, Jeff Pope says: "This is an incredibly important story to tell, and we’ve got a heavyweight ensemble cast in place that will help us examine the events that led to the tragic shooting of the innocent Jean Charles de Menezes. He was just a commuter who was tracked for nearly an hour with surveillance failing to correctly identify him, before he was shot dead on a crowded tube train, leaving his family to try and shine a light on the critical errors that led to this devastating tragedy.”
The real story behind Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes
Electrician Jean Charles de Silva e de Menezes was a Brazilian man who was living in London at the time of the London bombings on July 7, 2005, where terrorists killed 52 people. He was wrongly identified as part of a terror cell of four men that had made a failed bombing attempt on July 21, just weeks after the atrocity, and the next day was followed by armed officers as he walked to the station. His address, in a block of flats, had been written on a gym membership found inside one of the unexploded bags used by the failed bombers. When Jean Charles boarded a train, he was shot by police marksmen. His death provoked outcry and a catalogue of errors was discovered in the build-up to the shooting. The Met was found guilty of breaking health and safety laws and fined £175,000. No officers were prosecuted. An inquest into Jean Charles’ death returned an open verdict.
