Can Yaman as Sandokan holding a sword and hook in Sandokan (2025)
By
Guy Howie
Published Jan 28, 2026, 7:34 PM EST
After joining Screen Rant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers.
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Having arrived on Netflix little more than a month after its premiere on Italian television, pirate-themed action-adventure series Sandokan has taken the streaming world by storm. Its buccaneering adventure story has sailed past the likes of Stranger Things and 11.22.63, straight into the streaming platform’s American top 10.
Sandokan has achieved similar success on Netflix’s global chart, demonstrating the appetite across the high seas for swashbuckling historical adventure stories about pirates coming to the aid of oppressed peoples in their region. While nothing else is quite like this Italian miniseries about Emilio Salgari’s fictional “Tiger of Malaya”, it certainly has parallels with other TV shows.
The anti-colonial struggle Sandokan joins in the South China Sea shares similarities with other historical action shows featuring anti-heroes rebelling against belligerent empires. These similarities even extend to the realms of fantasy and sci-fi. Certain adventure stories charted across fictional waterways and intergalactic thoroughfares chime with themes and plot elements in Sandokan, too.
Whatever their respective settings, though, plenty of TV action thrillers out there would be the perfect complement to Sandokan, for those who’ve already finished watching this eight-part swords and sails spectacular. Not all of these shows feature pirates per se, but they’re still scintillating adventure tales truly worthy of the genre.
Mr. Sunshine
2018
A group of people in period clothing pose in the K-drama Mr. Sunshine.
Among the many K-dramas set at the time of Japanese colonial rule in Korea, Mr. Sunshine is the most engaging and accessible. Squid Game’s Front Man actor Lee Byung-hun plays the title character, a former slave serving in the U.S. Marines upon his return to his home country in the early 1900s.
Of course, like most K-dramas, Mr. Sunshine has a love story at the heart of its personal focus. Just as Sandokan falls for the rebellious daughter of a British nobleman, Byung-hun’s central hero gets drawn into a romance with the freedom-fighting descendent of one of Korea’s biggest aristocratic families.
One Piece
2023–Present
Inaki Godoy as Luffy touching his hat in One Piece
The phenomenal popularity of One Piece propelled it to the forefront of global politics in 2025, when the show’s Straw Hat Pirates flag became a symbol of rebellion and freedom among Gen Z protesters from Morocco to Nepal. It’s no wonder, then, that anticipation for the second season of Netflix’s live-action adaptation has already reached boiling point.
Those who enjoy Sandokan’s initially cynical but ultimately selfless fight against the British Empire for the greater good of his fellow Southeast Asians will almost certainly identify with the exploits of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew in One Piece. What the show lacks in historical realism, it more than makes up for in buccaneering spirit.
Firefly
2002
L-R: Jayne, Zoe, Mal, Inara, and Wash
One of the greatest TV shows ever made with fewer than 40 episodes, Firefly is a far cry from the South China Sea. Set around the habitable moons of an unknown solar system deep in outer space, this single-season Space Western nevertheless centers on intergalactic smugglers and pirates.
Its main characters tend to lean the wrong side of their universe’s legal limits, but they’re generally on the right side of right and wrong, much like Sandokan. While in some ways the two shows are visually worlds apart, there are definitely stylistic elements within Firefly that will resonate with fans of the pirate adventure miniseries.
Our Flag Means Death
2022–2023
Taika Waititi in Our Flag Means Death's "Fun and Games"Nicola Dove / ©HBO Max / Courtesy Everett Collection
Sandokan skillfully straddles the line between all-out action and outright comedy, and this HBO pirate romance does much the same thing. Our Flag Means Death was canceled in its prime three years ago, but there’s still a lot to enjoy across its 18 episodes.
The series stars Rhys Darby as real-life English gentleman Stede Bonnet, who found his true calling out at sea as a pirate. Based on real historical events, Our Flag Means Death at one point depicts Bonnet’s meeting with the legendary pirate known as Blackbeard. Anyone watching Sandokan for its relatively light-hearted approach to seafaring history should love this forgotten gem.
Shōgun
2024–Present
Mariko and Blackthorne sat on some rocks and talking in Shogun
A few hundred miles north of where Sandokan is set, Shōgun’s black ships sailed along Portuguese trading routes, blurring the lines between pirates and adventurers. This genre-defining historical action show is among the finest televisual achievements so far this decade.
It may focus more on medieval Japanese society and martial arts than privateers, yet feels as though it could share a universe with Netflix’s newest action-adventure hit. What’s more, both Shōgun and Sandokan are remakes of small-screen classics in their own right from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Somehow, both manage to improve on their forerunners.
Against The Wind
1978
Against the Wind (1978) Australian TV show
Against the Wind is a seminal period drama series about the colonial era, which is arguably better than even the very best Australian TV shows on Netflix and other streaming platforms today. The miniseries follows a group of early Australian settlers of Irish heritage, who are ruled by the iron heel of the British military in New South Wales.
The series is based on real events in the lives of the Garrett family at the turn of the 19th century, and illustrates in unflinching detail the brutality of the British imperialist regime in that part of the world, just a few decades before Sandokan is set.
Taboo
2017
Tom Hardy wearing a poncho in the rain in Taboo
Tom Hardy’s Taboo is a must-binge series for anyone with access to Peacock Premium, fuboTV, or The Roku Channel (where it’s actually free to watch with ads). This single-season historical thriller delves deep into the rottenness at the heart of the British Empire, from the perspective of an Englishman who’s spent decades living in exile among African tribes.
It’s as brooding as it is morally ambivalent, and far grittier than anything else of its kind. Fundamentally, though, this is a show that shares with Sandokan a perceptive understanding of the nature of colonialism rarely seen in TV drama.
Shaka Zulu
1986
Shaka Zulu (1986) TV show
A visually breathtaking depiction of the titular Zulu king’s life and relationship to British traders and colonizers, this 1986 series has aged remarkably well given the context in which it was made. The show appears to have been partially funded by the Apartheid government in South Africa at the time, but provides a relatively faithful picture of Shaka nonetheless.
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Black Sails
2014–2017
Blackbeard pointing a gun in Black Sails.
The most notable example of a pirate-themed historical drama series in the streaming age, Black Sails is effectively a four-season prequel to Treasure Island. Set in the Bahamas at the height of Caribbean piracy, the show stars Toby Stephens as the future Captain Flint, and Luke Arnold as Long John Silver.
If it’s pure, unadulterated pirate adventure stories you’re after, there’s surely no better bet on television than Black Sails. Those enjoying Sandokan primarily for the piracy need to find a way to watch this swashbuckling tale of pirate rule on New Providence island in the early 1700s.
Brigands: The Quest For Gold
2024–Present
Brigands The Quest for Gold (2024)
There aren’t many other shows out there quite like Black Sails or Sandokan when it comes to pirate-centric historical fiction, but Brigands: The Quest for Gold certainly falls in this bracket. Another Italian-made streaming drama on Netflix, this 2024 series is ideal viewing for anyone who’s just finished Sandokan.
Brigands is every bit as action-oriented and faithful to the pirate code as its newer, more popular younger sibling. The main differences between this series and Sandokan are its setting off the coast of Calabria, southern Italy, and the distinct lack of Emilio Salgari’s masterful storytelling behind its narrative arc.
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