ABC trying to puzzle out how to Americanize David Mitchell's Ludwig

Mythic Quest's Megan Ganz and Humphrey Ker will write the pilot for Rabbit, about a puzzle maker who winds up using logic skills to solve a bunch of murders.

By William Hughes  |  October 8, 2026 | 7:20pm
David Mitchell in Ludwig, Image: BBC One
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ABC trying to puzzle out how to Americanize David Mitchell's Ludwig

The premise of David Mitchell’s BBC One crime procedural Ludwig isn’t especially hard to explain, despite being almost (passive-)aggressively British: Mitchell stars as a crossword puzzle designer who works under the titular nom de puzz, who winds up getting dragged into using his logic skills to solve actual murders after his police detective twin brother goes missing. (Okay, that last bit gets a little convoluted, but the basic idea—nerd solves murders by treating them like puzzles—is pretty easy to parse, right?) ABC certainly thinks so, as Variety reports today that the network is making an effort to make an American version of the series called Rabbit, presumably because American audiences would claw out their eyes if you asked them to think about someone called “Ludwig” for more than 20 seconds.

The series has been given a pilot order from the network, with Mythic Quest‘s Megan Ganz and Humphrey Ker both writing the initial episode, while Mitchell and Ludwig creator Mark Brotherhood are both attached as executive producers. (Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz, who work with Disney thanks to their EP roles on Disney+ series Percy Jackson And The Olympians, will also executive produce.)

The logline for the show certainly checks out: “After his homicide detective twin brother goes missing, Mark, a reclusive puzzle writer known as ‘Rabbit,’ is pulled from his solitary life and thrust into the Cambridge, MA police department, where he poses as his brother to investigate his mysterious disappearance. But soon, Mark discovers that his uncanny ability to solve impossible puzzles makes him an unlikely crime-solving sensation.” That being said, the parts of our brains that have been hurt before can’t help but immediately flash back to one of those previous times that American TV attempted to translate Mitchell’s very particular blend of cynicism, fussiness, and highly repressed anger for Stateside audiences; if you start seeing Johnny Galecki—star of the ill-fated American Peep Show pilot, still one of the most damned half-hours of TV we’ve ever watched—hanging around this thing, head for the hills, folks.

 

 
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