Department Q

Department Q (Danish: Afdeling Q) is a series of ten Danish Nordic noir crime novels by author Jussi Adler-Olsen^[1] which have been adapted in an ongoing series of highly successful Danish films and a forthcoming English language TV adaptation for Netflix which changes the setting from Denmark to Scotland.

Department Q
Cover of Department Q Trilogy Dvd
Directed by	Mikkel Nørgaard [da; no] (1–2) Hans Petter Moland (3) Christoffer Boe (4) Martin Zandvliet (5) Ole Christian Madsen (6)
Screenplay by	Nikolaj Arcel (1–4) Rasmus Heisterberg (2) Bo Hr. Hansen [da] (4) Mikkel Nørgaard [da; no] (4) Anders August (5) Thomas Porsager (5) Jakob Weis (6)
Based on	Novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Produced by	Peter Aalbæk Jensen (1–4) Louise Vesth (1–4) Mikael Rieks [da] (5–10)
Starring	Nikolaj Lie Kaas (1–4) Ulrich Thomsen (5–10) Fares Fares (1–4) Zaki Youssef [da] (5) Afshin Firouzi [da; no] (6-10) Johanne Louise Schmidt (2–4) Sofie Torp [da; fr; no] (5-10)
Cinematography	Eric Kress (1–2) John Andreas Andersen (3) Jacob Møller (4) Aske Foss (5) Jørgen Johansson [da] (6)
Production companies	Zentropa (1–4) Nordisk Film (5–10)
Distributed by	Nordisk Film
Country	Denmark
Languages	Danish English Arabic Swedish Norwegian French Spanish German Romani Czech
Budget	€35,000,000[a]
Box office	DKK 287,210,000

Novels

Originally written in Danish, the novels have been translated into numerous languages, including English, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese.^[2]

Despite using the same translations, the Penguin Group titled the first five novels differently in the UK and the USA. Their editions use the same English titles as the film adaptations.

Novel	Original title	Year	Film adaptation	Year
Mercy [da; de]	Kvinden i buret	2007 2011 (USA & UK)	The Keeper of Lost Causes	2013
Disgrace [da; de]	Fasandræberne	2008 2012 (USA & UK)	The Absent One	2014
Redemption [da; de]	Flaskepost fra P	2009 2013 (USA & UK)	A Conspiracy of Faith	2016
Guilty [da; de]	Journal 64	2010 2013 (USA) 2014 (UK)	The Purity of Vengeance [da; ca; cy; de; es; fa; fr; it; ko; no; sv]	2018
Buried [da]	Marco Effekten	2012 2014 (USA & UK)	The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv][3]	2021
The Hanging Girl [da]	Den Grænseløse	2014 2015 (USA & UK)	Boundless [da; sv][4][5]	2024
The Scarred Woman [da]	Selfies	2016 2017 (USA & UK)
Victim 2117 [da]	Offer 2117	2019 2020 (USA & UK)
The Shadow Murders [da]	Natrium Chlorid	2021 2022 (USA & UK)
Locked In	Syv m2 med Lås	2021 2022 (USA & UK)

Adaptations

Films

• The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013)
• The Absent One (2014)
• A Conspiracy of Faith (2016)
• The Purity of Vengeance [da; ca; cy; de; es; fa; fr; it; ko; no; sv] (2018)
• The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv] (2021)
• Boundless [da; sv] (2024)^[4][5]

Upcoming^[6][7]

• The Scarred Woman (2026)
• Victim 2117 (2028)
• The Shadow Murders (2030)
• Locked In (2032)

The first four films were produced by Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Louise Vesth through Zentropa, however despite their commercial and critical success, author Jussi Adler-Olsen was unhappy with the results and the casting, feeling that the films and characters departed from his novels too much and that his suggestions were being ignored, leading to Nordisk Film (who had already distributed the prior films in Denmark) and producer Mikael Rieks [da] taking over for the remainder of the series, with all the recurring roles recast.^[8]

English language TV series

In April 2023, it was announced that an English-language adaptation of the successful Danish crime series of books would be adapted for the streaming service Netflix by filmmaker Scott Frank.^[9] Frank first acquired the US television rights for the novels in 2014 and initially planned to set the series in Boston, Massachusetts instead of Denmark. The eight-part series is being produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television with the setting finally being Scotland and filming taking place in Edinburgh.^[10] Frank is showrunner and is directing the first two episodes. He also co-wrote the series alongside Chandni Lakhani, Stephen Greenhorn and Colette Kane.^[11]

Filming began in Edinburgh in February 2024, with Matthew Goode in the lead role of Carl Morck, Alexej Manvelov [sv; de; fr; nl; zh] as Akram Salim (renamed from Hafez el-Assad), Leah Byrne as Rose, Chloe Pirrie as Merrit Lingard (renamed from Merete Lynggaard) and Kelly Macdonald as Dr. Rachel Irving.^[12] Later that month, Mark Bonnar, Jamie Sives, Shirley Henderson and Kate Dickie were also confirmed to be cast.^[13]

Cast and characters

Character	The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013)	The Absent One (2014)	A Conspiracy of Faith (2016)	The Purity of Vengeance [da; ca; cy; de; es; fa; fr; it; ko; no; sv] (2018)	The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv] (2021)	Boundless [da; sv] (2024)	The Scarred Woman (2026)	Victim 2117 (2028)	The Shadow Murders (2030)	Locked In (2032)	English language Netflix series (2025)
Carl Mørck	Nikolaj Lie Kaas				Ulrich Thomsen						Matthew Goode
Hafez el-Assad[b]	Fares Fares				Zaki Youssef [da]	Afshin Firouzi [da; no]					Alexej Manvelov [sv; de; fr; nl; zh]
Rose Knudsen		Johanne Louise Schmidt			Sofie Torp [da; fr; no]						Leah Byrne
Gordon					Mads Reuther [da]						TBA
Marcus Jacobsen	Søren Pilmark				Henrik Noél [da]						TBA
Hardy Henningsen	Troels Lyby				Thomas W. Gabrielsson						TBA
Mona					Lisa Carlehed [sv; da]						TBA
Merete Lynggaard[c]	Sonja Richter										Chloe Pirrie

Zaki Youssef [da] was unable to return as Assad after The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv] due to having recently become a father and having other scheduling conflicts with the filming of Boundless [da; sv], which started on 5 September 2022, half a year earlier than planned.^[14]

Crew

Film	The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013)	The Absent One (2014)	A Conspiracy of Faith (2016)	The Purity of Vengeance [da; ca; cy; de; es; fa; fr; it; ko; no; sv] (2018)	The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv] (2021)	Boundless [da; sv] (2024)
Director	Mikkel Nørgaard [da; no]		Hans Petter Moland	Christoffer Boe	Martin Zandvliet	Ole Christian Madsen
Producer(s)	Peter Aalbæk Jensen Louise Vesth				Mikael Rieks [da]	Mikael Rieks [da] Malene Blenkov
Screenwriter(s)	Nikolaj Arcel	Nikolaj Arcel Rasmus Heisterberg	Nikolaj Arcel	Nikolaj Arcel Bo Hr. Hansen [da] Mikkel Nørgaard [da; no]	Anders August Thomas Porsager	Jakob Weis
Composer(s)	Patrik Andrén Uno Helmersson Johan Söderqvist		Nicklas Schmidt [da; de]	Mikkel Maltha Anthony Lledo	Sune Martin	Jonas Struck [da; de] Lasse Ziegler
Cinematographer	Eric Kress		John Andreas Andersen	Jacob Møller	Aske Foss	Jørgen Johansson [da]
Editor(s)	Morten Egholm Martin Schade		Olivier Bugge Coutté [no] Nicolaj Monberg	Janus Billeskov Jansen [da; ar; arz; de; fr; sv] My Thordal	Per K. Kirkegaard Per Sandholt	Frederik Strunk Nicolaj Monberg
Production company	Zentropa				Nordisk Film
Distribution	Nordisk Film
Runtime	96 minutes	119 minutes	112 minutes	119 minutes	125 minutes	126 minutes
Release date	October 3, 2013	October 2, 2014	March 3, 2016	October 4, 2018	May 27, 2021	February 1, 2024

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office gross (Denmark)	Attendance (Denmark)	Box office ranking (Danish films)	Budget
The Keeper of Lost Causes	October 3, 2013	DKK 59,010,000[15]	721,256[16]	#5[15]	€5,000,000[17]
The Absent One	October 2, 2014	DKK 68,100,000[15]	764,002[18]	#2[15]	€5,200,000[19]
A Conspiracy of Faith	March 3, 2016	DKK 64,300,000[15]	704,971[20]	#4[15]	€5,300,000[21]
The Purity of Vengeance [da; ca; cy; de; es; fa; fr; it; ko; no; sv]	October 4, 2018	DKK 72,500,000[15]	765,111[22]	#1[15]	€5,200,000[23]
The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv]	May 27, 2021	DKK 23,300,000[24]	225,243[25]	N/A	€7,400,000[26]
Boundless [da; sv]	February 1, 2024	TBA	301,800[27]	TBA	€6,900,000[5]
Total		DKK 287,210,000	3,482,383		€35,000,000
Average		DKK 57,442,000	580,397		€5,830,000

The films have been massively successful, selling over three million tickets in Denmark alone, where the installments regularly top the yearly box-office. The Purity of Vengeance [da; ca; cy; de; es; fa; fr; it; ko; no; sv] (2018) became the highest grossing Danish film of all time upon release,^[28] with a gross of 72,500,000 DKK, The Absent One (2014) the second highest with 68,1 M. DKK, A Conspiracy of Faith (2016) the fourth with 64,3 M. DKK, and The Keeper of Lost Causes (2012) the fifth with 59,01 M. DKK. The Purity of Vengeance is additionally the 11th overall highest grossing film in Denmark.^[15] The fifth film The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv] however, which marked a complete recast, was significantly less successful despite a larger budget. The sixth film, Boundless [da; sv], had the best opening for a Danish film since Checkered Ninja 2 in 2021, three years prior,^[29] and is currently the most watched film of 2024 in Danish cinemas.^[27]

Critical response

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	Kino.dk
The Keeper of Lost Causes	71% (28 reviews)[30]	62 (8 reviews)[31]	4.2/6 (7 reviews)[32]
The Absent One	92% (12 reviews)[33]	61 (6 reviews)[34]	3.5/6 (7 reviews)[35]
A Conspiracy of Faith	100% (6 reviews)[36]	75 (3 reviews)[37]	3.7/6 (7 reviews)[38]
The Purity of Vengeance [da; ca; cy; de; es; fa; fr; it; ko; no; sv]	66% (3 reviews)[39]	N/A	4/6 (7 reviews)[40]
The Marco Effect [da; ca; cy; de; fr; sv]	N/A	N/A	3.5/6 (8 reviews)[41]
Boundless [da; sv]	N/A	N/A	4/6 (7 reviews)[42]

Notes

1. Combined budget of the six films
2. Renamed Akram Salim in the Netflix series
3. Renamed Merrit Lingard in the Netflix series