‘Ludwig’ Remake ‘Rabbit’ Lands Pilot Order At ABC

Ludwig, the British comedy drama starring David Mitchell, is getting a U.S. remake.

ABC has handed the project, which comes from Megan Ganz, Humphrey Ker, Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz, a pilot order. 20th Television is the studio.

It comes after the BBC series, which launched in the UK in 2024, became the most-watched show in Britain in 2026 after the premiere episode of season two was watched by more than 9M viewers.

Ludwig stars Mitchell as John Taylor, a reclusive puzzle maker who pretends to be his brother when he goes missing and infiltrates the local police station to investigate, before becoming embroiled in other cases.

Rabbit will follow a similar path. 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, per the logline.

Ludwig was created by Mark Brotherhood (Mount Pleasant) and produced by ITV-owned Big Talk.

Rabbit will be written by Ganz, who has written on Mythic Quest, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Modern Family and is under an overall at 20th Studios, and Ker, who wrote on Mythic Quest and was an executive director of Wrexham AFC, as seen in FX’s Welcome to Wrexham.

The pair will exec produce alongside Percy Jackson & the Olympians showrunner Steinberg and exec producer Shotz. David Mitchell, Mark Brotherhood and Big Talk boss Kenton Allen will also exec produce.

Rabbit marks the latest European format to be remade in the U.S. in recent years. Fox remade British medical comedy drama Doc Martin as Best Medicine, which returned for its second season last month, Doc, which returned for its third season, is based on an Italian drama and its Memory of a Killer is based on Belgian film De Zaak Alzheimer. CBS has Einstein, a police procedural based on a German series, and ABC has High Potential, renewed for a third season, based on French series HPI.

Ludwig, which has been renewed for a third season and a Christmas special by the BBC, returns to BritBox on October 13.