historical TV Shows & Characters

Black Butler

2008-present · 5 Seasons

A boy earl sells his soul to a demon butler for revenge in gothic Victorian England.

Mr. Sunshine

2018 · 1 Season

A man born into slavery returns to 1900s Joseon Korea as a US Marine officer and falls for an aristocrat's granddaughter turned independence fighter, as the nation faces colonization.

Mr. Queen

2020–2021 · 1 Season

A modern-day chef's soul wakes up trapped in the body of a Joseon-era queen, bringing 21st-century attitude to palace politics in this hit tvN fusion-sageuk comedy.

The Red Sleeve

2021–2022 · 1 Season

An acclaimed Joseon-era romance between a court lady who guards her independence and the Crown Prince who loves her, based on the real history of King Jeongjo and Royal Noble Consort Ui.

Mononoke

2007 · 1 Season

A visually dazzling 2007 anthology anime, drawn in an ukiyo-e and washi-paper style, in which a wandering Medicine Seller exorcises spirits by uncovering their Form, Truth, and Reason.

My Dearest

2023–2024 · 1 Season

A sweeping Joseon-era romance in which noblewoman Yu Gil-chae and the enigmatic Lee Jang-hyun fall in love amid the upheaval of the 1636 Qing invasion, enduring war and long separation.

Gyeongseong Creature

2023–2024 · 2 Seasons

In 1945 occupied Gyeongseong, a savvy pawnshop owner and a sharp missing-persons tracker uncover a horrifying secret inside a guarded hospital, in a Korean period creature-thriller anchored by their partnership and romance.

Jubilee

2023 · 1 Season

In the golden age of the Bombay film industry, a studio mogul, his manufactured star, a hungry outsider, and a reigning actress collide as a new nation builds its dream factory.

Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar

2024 · 1 Season

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's opulent 2024 Netflix period epic set in 1940s Lahore, following the matriarch Mallikajaan and the women of her house through power struggles, rivalry, and the rising Indian independence movement.

Uncle Samsik

2024 · 1 Season

In postwar South Korea, a resourceful fixer nicknamed Samsik forms an uneasy alliance with an idealistic young elite amid the schemes to industrialize and seize power, in Song Kang-ho's television debut.

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

2016–2017 · 2 Seasons

An acclaimed Studio Deen anime (2016–2017) in which an ex-convict apprentices himself to a legendary, aloof master of rakugo, traditional Japanese comic storytelling, as the story unfolds across decades of the master's youth, a brilliant rival, and an art form fighting to survive a changing Japan.

Rocket Boys

2022–2023 · 2 Seasons

A prestige SonyLIV period drama tracing the friendship and ambitions of scientists Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai as they build India's nuclear and space programs from the 1940s onward.

The Tale of Lady Ok

2024–2025 · 1 Season

A Joseon-era period drama in which a woman born into servitude escapes her station, assumes the identity of a noblewoman named Ok-tae-yeong, and becomes a sharp legal expert pursuing justice, while a romance with a veiled wanderer tests the secrets she hides.

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

2024–2025 · 1 Season

In a fictionalized 15th-century Europe where heliocentrism is forbidden, a succession of thinkers across generations risk everything to pursue and pass down the truth about the movements of the cosmos.

Bon Appetit, Your Majesty

2025 · 1 Season

A modern French-trained chef is hurled back to the Joseon dynasty and must cook for a demanding tyrant-king, winning his court and his heart through food across the centuries.

Anne Shirley

2025 · 1 Season

A 2025 NHK anime adaptation of Anne of Green Gables: imaginative orphan Anne Shirley is mistakenly sent to siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert on Prince Edward Island and wins over the whole community with her irrepressible spirit.

Last Samurai Standing

2025 · 1 Season

In early-Meiji Japan, hundreds of out-of-work warriors enter a deadly cross-country contest for a life-changing prize, and weary swordsman Shujiro Saga joins to save his family.

The Bonfire of Destiny

2019 · 1 Season

In 1897 Paris, a catastrophe at a charity bazaar upends the lives of three women across the social classes, opening doors to reinvention, secrets, and freedom in a rigid belle-epoque society.

Senna

2024 · 1 Season

A Brazilian biographical drama tracing Formula One legend Ayrton Senna from karting to three world championships and the rivalry that defined his career.

1670

2023 · 1 Season

In the year 1670, a deluded minor nobleman dreams of greatness while running his village and family into the ground, in a deadpan Office-style mockumentary satire of Polish history and national myth.

Onihei

2017 · 1 Season

An Edo-period jidaigeki anime following Heizo Hasegawa, the stern but compassionate chief of the Arson-Theft Control office, as he polices old Edo with equal parts severity and mercy.

Santa Evita

2022 · 1 Season

A 2022 Argentine historical miniseries tracing the clandestine odyssey of Eva Peron's embalmed body in the years after her 1952 death, as political factions fight over the corpse as a symbol of power.

The Club

2021-2022 · 2 Seasons

In 1950s Istanbul, a Jewish-Turkish woman freed from prison works at a Beyoglu nightclub and fights to reconnect with the teenage daughter she was forced to give up.

The Law According to Lidia Poet

2023-present · 2 Seasons

In 1880s Turin, Lidia Poet, the first woman admitted to the Italian bar, is barred from practicing because of her sex and works cases through her brother's firm while fighting for her right to the profession.

Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood

2020 · 1 Season

In 1900 Munich, a ruthless Nuremberg brewer schemes to build a giant Oktoberfest beer hall, colliding with established local families, his ambitious daughter, and a rival brewer's son.

Deutschland 89

2020 · 1 Season

In 2020 trilogy finale Deutschland 89, reluctant East German spy Martin Rauch is dragged back into the game as the Berlin Wall falls and the GDR collapses, his every loyalty tested.

Generation War

2013 · 1 Season

Five young Berlin friends promise to reunite after the war in this acclaimed German WWII miniseries that follows how the conflict scatters and transforms them across the Eastern Front, a field hospital, and occupied Europe.

The Elusive Samurai

2024 · 1 Season

In 14th-century Japan, young noble heir Hojo Tokiyuki loses his clan to betrayal and survives not by fighting but by a gift for escape, gathering allies to reclaim his place. A stylish, acclaimed CloverWorks historical-action anime from the creator of Assassination Classroom.

Midnight at the Pera Palace

2022-2024 · 2 Seasons

A present-day journalist staying at Istanbul's historic Pera Palace Hotel discovers a passage to 1919 and is swept into a charming, dangerous plot that could change the founding of modern Turkey.

The Railway Men

2023 · 1 Season

A four-part Indian drama about the railway workers of Bhopal Junction who stayed at their posts to save thousands of strangers during the 1984 industrial disaster.

Germinal

2021 · 1 Season

A six-part French adaptation of Emile Zola's novel: a young migrant worker joins a 19th-century coal-mining community in northern France and helps galvanize a strike against brutal conditions, with love and tragedy threaded through the struggle.

High Water

2022 · 1 Season

A Polish Netflix drama inspired by the 1997 millennium flood, in which a hydrologist and a local official race against a record flood wave threatening Wroclaw and confront the dilemma of sacrificing outlying areas to save the city.

The Cook of Castamar

2021 · 1 Season

In 1720s Madrid, an agoraphobic cook and a grieving widowed Duke fall into an impossible love across the rigid lines of class.

Cigarette Girl (Gadis Kretek)

2023 · 1 Season

In 1960s Indonesia, a gifted woman defies a male-dominated kretek industry to master the art of cigarette-sauce blending, while in the present a son retraces his dying father's lost love across the years.

Yosi, the Regretful Spy

2022-2023 · 2 Seasons

An undercover Argentine intelligence agent who infiltrated a community in 1990s Buenos Aires is consumed by guilt over where his surveillance led, and decades later sets out to uncover the truth.

Every Minute Counts

2024 · 1 Season

Set during the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, this Mexican drama follows a haunted doctor, an ambitious reporter, and a conflicted government official as ordinary citizens and rescuers race to pull survivors from the rubble.

News of a Kidnapping

2022 · 1 Season

A six-part Colombian limited series adapting Gabriel Garcia Marquez's nonfiction account, in which 1990s journalists and families endure a wave of abductions and the press becomes a steadying moral force grounded in truth and dignity.

The Hijacking of Flight 601

2024 · 1 Season

A six-part Colombian Netflix limited series dramatizing the 1973 hijacking of a domestic airliner, one of Latin America's longest aerial standoffs, told with restraint through the eyes of the crew, the passengers, and the two hijackers.

The Lions of Sicily

2023 · 1 Season

A sweeping Italian period saga charting the real Florio family's rise from humble Palermo shopkeepers to one of 19th-century Sicily's wealthiest dynasties.

Last Madame

2019-2020 · 1 Season

A Singaporean period drama in which a fiercely independent woman rises to run a renowned house in 1940s Singapore, building a found family and surviving a turbulent era, while a modern-day descendant uncovers her story.

Jagun Jagun

2023 · 1 Season

A 2023 Nigerian Yoruba epic on Netflix in which a young man enters a feared warrior academy run by the tyrannical warlord Ogundiji and rises to challenge his reign.

Davos 1917

2023 · 1 Season

In neutral Switzerland during the third winter of World War One, nurse Johanna Gabathuler takes a post in a grand Davos sanatorium and is drawn into a web of espionage among the diplomats, profiteers, and convalescing patients in the Alpine town. This six-part Swiss-German period drama frames its intrigue around one woman's impossible choices between loyalty, family, and survival.

Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho

2025 · 1 Season

A shrine guardian bound by a vow takes up his sword against demons, his hunt carrying him across the changing eras of Japan over centuries.

Maria Clara at Ibarra

2022-2023 · 1 Season

A Gen-Z nursing student is transported into the world of Jose Rizal's novels, living alongside Maria Clara and Crisostomo Ibarra in this acclaimed GMA period fantasy.

To Kokkino Potami (The Red River)

2019-2023 · 2 Seasons

A lavish Greek period drama: two children of Pontic Greek families are betrothed, separated, and years later fall in love as strangers in Constantinople, against the turbulent backdrop of the early 20th century.

The Little Nyonya

2008 · 1 Season

A sweeping Mediacorp period drama following a devoted Peranakan nyonya and her family's traditions, trials, and resilience across generations.

War and Beauty

2004 · 1 Season

A 2004 TVB period drama following four women navigating rank, favor, and survival inside the Qing-dynasty imperial harem.

Story of Yanxi Palace

2018 · 1 Season

A resourceful palace maid enters the Qing-dynasty Forbidden City to uncover the truth about her sister's death, and rises through the imperial court on wit and resolve in this record-breaking iQiyi historical drama.

The Double

2024 · 1 Season

A wronged noblewoman survives betrayal, takes on a new identity as Jiang Li within a powerful household, and navigates aristocratic intrigue to reclaim her name in this 2024 iQiyi costume drama led by Wu Jinyan and Wang Xingyue.

Ciel Phantomhive

Played by Maaya Sakamoto

Sebastian Michaelis

Played by Daisuke Ono

Grell Sutcliff

Played by Jun Fukuyama

Eugene Choi

Played by Lee Byung-hun

Go Ae-shin

Played by Kim Tae-ri

Gu Dong-mae

Played by Yoo Yeon-seok

Queen Kim So-yong

Played by Shin Hye-sun

King Cheoljong

Played by Kim Jung-hyun

Jo Hwa-jin

Played by Seol In-ah

Seong Deok-im

Played by Lee Se-young

Yi San (Crown Prince)

Played by Lee Jun-ho

Hong Deok-ro

Played by Kang Hoon

The Medicine Seller (Kusuriuri)

Played by Takahiro Sakurai

Shino (Zashiki-warashi arc)

Played by Yuko Kaida

Kayo (Bakeneko arc)

Played by Aya Hisakawa

Yu Gil-chae

Played by Ahn Eun-jin

Lee Jang-hyun

Played by Namkoong Min

Gyeong Eun-ae

Played by Lee Da-in

Jang Tae-sang

Played by Park Seo-joon

Yoon Chae-ok

Played by Han So-hee

Na Wol-daek

Played by Kim Hae-sook

Binod Das (Madan Kumar)

Played by Aparshakti Khurana

Jay Khanna

Played by Sidhant Gupta

Sumitra Kumari

Played by Aditi Rao Hydari