Karl Lagerfeld’s life is set to be the premise of a new Disney+ series

Karl Lagerfeld’s legacy includes being the head designer and creative director of esteemed fashion houses Chanel, Fendi, and his eponymous label. Now, his life and rise through the world of fashion is set to be chronicled in a new Disney+ series. 

Called “Kaiser Karl”, the six-part series is currently shooting in France, Monaco, and Italy, and stars Captain America: Civil War’s Daniel Brühl as the iconic designer. 

The show will chart Karl Lagerfeld’s rise through the Parisian fashion world in the 1970s along with his rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent’s partner Pierre Berge and his love story with Jacques de Bascher, Variety reports.

Other character cameos viewers can expect in the show include Andy Warhol (played by Paul Spera), designer Loulou de la Falaise (Claire Laffut), and german actor Marlene Dietrich (Sunnyi Melles).

The streaming platform says the series will feature more than 2,200 extras, 40 different sets, 3,000 costumes – of which 160 will be made from scratch.

Kaiser Karl is set to be released later this year, almost four and a half years after the designer’s death in February 2019, aged 85. 

Karl was a German-born designer, and at the height of his career he designed more than a dozen collections annually for the three fashion houses he helmed and he was the only designer to show two haute couture collections in Paris each season. 

The series follows news announced at the end of 2022 that Jared Leto will star as the designer in a new biopic about Karl’s life. 

Jared signed up as both the lead and a producer on the film, which is being produced by his production company Paradox, but it is not clear if it has begun filming or when it will be released. 

“I feel like this is a full-circle moment and Karl would be proud of what we are doing,” Jared told WWD at the time.

“Karl was an artist. Period. He was a fashion designer, he was a photographer, he was an artist. There was no defining him. He was a creative powerhouse.”