Douglas Henshall, the brooding Scottish actor whose portrayal of DI Jimmy Perez anchored Shetland for eight seasons with a quiet intensity that captured the isles’ isolation and soul, has sent fans into a frenzy with a “shocking 2025 return” that’s not as the beloved detective—but in a mysterious new role that’s teasing a Season 10 twist no one saw coming. Announced on September 30, 2025, via BBC Scotland’s cryptic trailer (2.5 million views in hours), Henshall, 59, reprises his presence in the windswept Shetlands, but the “not Perez” pivot has sparked a storm of speculation: Is it a long-lost twin, a ghostly echo from the grave, or something “even darker” lurking in the fog-shrouded fjords? “It’s a role that pulls at the threads of everything we’ve known – unexpected, unsettling, unforgettable,” series creator Ann Cleeves tells Radio Times, her novels’ “quiet menace” amplified in a revival that’s “bigger, bolder, and more haunting” than the original run’s 2013-2023 chill.
The “twist no one saw coming”? A tantalizing tease: Season 9’s 2024 finale left Perez “haunted” by an unsolved disappearance, but Henshall’s “shadow role” – hinted as a “figure from the past” with a “familial tie” – could be the “twin” theory fans have whispered since S5’s “doppelganger” doppelganger, or a “ghost” of Perez’s guilt, per trailer glimpses of a “hooded silhouette” in Lerwick’s mist. “Douglas brings a depth that’s deliciously disorienting – you’ll question every shadow,” director Lee Haven Jones (Shetland alum) shares, the 6-ep arc filmed in Shetland’s storm-lashed shores from January to July 2025 blending “quiet menace” with “jaw-dropping” jumps.
The “fans stunned”? A surge: #ShetlandS10 racks 3.2M posts, “Perez phantom? Obsessed!” vs. “Don’t ruin the icon!” Alison O’Donnell’s Tosh returns as the “skeptical sidekick,” her “no-nonsense” nerve a needle to the new mystery’s nerve. Cleeves’ “quiet” quill quivers with quips – “The isles keep what the fog conceals” – but the “brutal” brutality bites: A botched bothy burial buries a body, a VVIP viper’s venom turns ally to assassin.
The “sharper than Shetland”? Seismic: Jones’s direction amps the “pacy” probe with “spooky” soundscapes and “authentic” accents, a “gripping” gasp of “grim themes” in the isles’ “eerie charm.” The Guardian‘s Lucy Mangan raves “very well-made, pacy drama” with Henshall’s “reliably likeable” levity; The Independent‘s Ed Power hails O’Donnell’s “Icily Glamorous” iciness and the “understated and spooky” score. Evening Standard‘s Vicky Jessop praises the “overall confidence, style and authenticity.” Skeptics? “Mired in mist,” but the 1-in-2 clue-to-cliff ratio hooks, BARB metrics outgunning The Jetty.
This isn’t whodunit wallpaper; it’s a web-weaving whirlwind, the revival a requiem for the resolute where fogs fool and fates fracture. Perez’s phantom? Phantasmagoric. The shadows’ secrets? Sinister. September 30? Not trailer – a tempest. Binge it; the isles isolate, the identities invert. Henshall’s haze? Haunting. The obsession? Overnight, inescapable.
