Daniel Bruhl to Play Fashion Icon Karl Lagerfeld in Disney+ Series ‘Kaiser Karl’

Start fitting Daniel Brühl for a pair of big black sunglasses and a ponytail. The German star has signed on to play the late fashion designer, and style icon, Karl Lagerfeld in the new Disney+ series, Kaiser Karl, Disney announced Thursday.

Brühl, most recently seen in Edward Berger’s nine-time Oscar nominated All Quiet on the Western Front for Netflix, will play the young Lagerfeld in the series, which tracks his rise in the French fashion world in the early 1970s.

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Arnaud Valois (BPM (Beats per Minute)) and Alex Lutz (Vortex) will play Lagerfeld’s fashion rivals Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, with Quebec actor Théodore Pellerin (Never Rarely Sometimes Always) playing Largerfeld’s love interest Jacques de Bascher. Agnès Jaoui (Singing Jailbirds) plays Gaby Aghion, the founder of the Chloé fashion brand, one of the first to recognize Lagerfeld’s talent.

Gaumont and Jour Premier are producing the six-part series for Disney+ France. Jérôme Salle (Totems) and Audrey Estrougo (upcoming Disney+ series Tout va bien) will direct.

Kaiser Karl is based on Raphaëlle Bacqué’s eponymous biography of the fashion designer. Bacqué adapted the book for the screen together with Isaure Pisani-Ferry (Kaboul Kitchen) and Jennifer Have (The Red Band Society). Pisani-Ferry is lead writer on the series and co-wrote all the scripts with Have, Dominique Baumard (The Bureau) and Nathalie Hertzberg (Farewell, De Gaulle, Farewell).

The series is currently shooting in France, Monaco and Italy.

The German-born Lagerfeld was a feature of the fashion world for decades with his signature white hair, black sunglasses and high, starched collars. He is arguable best known for his period as creative director of French fashion house Chanel, a position he held from 1983 until his death in 2019. He was also the creative director of the Italian fur and leather goods fashion house Fendi, and had his own, eponymous, fashion label.

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