Filmmaker Scorsese Goes Back to Vegas for More Casino Action

by Roy Brindley, 21 May 2026

Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese returns to Las Vegas in an executive role for a new Netflix present-day Las Vegas casino business drama series.

Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac will play the lead role in ‘The Roman’. © Getty Images

Key Facts:

• Netflix has announced a new eight-episode Las Vegas drama series.
• Legendary director Martin Scorsese takes an executive producer role.
• A strong cast of actors includes Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac and Alec Baldwin.

Netflix has announced the commission of a new eight-episode drama series set in what it calls “the high-stakes, sharp-elbowed present-day Las Vegas casino business, which is a modernised but still dangerous version of the legendary city.”

Martin Scorsese, known for his gritty films about organised crime – including Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Gangs of New York – has been recruited by the streaming service to act as an executive producer on the new show.

The famed director has previously executive-produced HBO’s hit gambling drama Boardwalk Empire – a production set in Atlantic City, the US East Coast’s Las Vegas. Gambling fans will know Scorsese best for his 1995 sprawling epic, Casino.

Rounders Writers and a Quality Cast

Behind the camera, the new drama titled The Roman is stacked with creative talent that possesses a rich history in gambling and crime dramas. Showrunners Brian Koppelman and David Levien made their screenwriting debut with cult poker thriller Rounders and later wrote the Vegas-set heist thriller Ocean’s Thirteen.

The cast of The Roman is equally impressive. Golden Globe winner, Oscar Isaac (known for roles in Beef, Inside Llewyn Davis, A Most Violent Year) headlines as ‘Bobby Red’, the casino president at the heart of the series.

Betty Gilpin will portray Bobby’s formidable wife, Marla Blake, a well-connected lawyer who knows how to navigate Las Vegas’ darkest corners. Alec Baldwin depicts a legendary and flint-eyed business technician who is the longstanding chairman of Bobby Red’s organisation.

David Costabile, with an impressive list of credits – including Billions, Suits and Breaking Bad – is scripted to play Bill Saverick, a longtime associate of Bobby’s who operates a rival casino.

Is The Roman a Casino Update?

Film buffs have already pointed out that The Roman’s setup makes it highly reminiscent of Scorsese’s Casino. In the gangster classic, Robert De Niro plays Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, a fictional character based on Frank Rosenthal, a real-life sports bettor and casino operator tied to the Chicago mob.

Official Trailer for Casino (1995). pic.twitter.com/aDKbgb5Bib

— Scorsese Universe (@scorsesepoint) February 27, 2026

The parallels between ‘Ace’ Rothstein and Robert ‘Bobby Red’ Redman suggest that the new Netflix TV show could well serve as a modern update of the acclaimed period drama, which ranks among Scorsese’s best works and is considered an all-time classic.

Gambling fans will also be excited by the involvement of the Rounders writers. For realistically capturing poker culture, especially the underground New York poker scene of the late 1990s, many consider Rounders the best poker movie ever made. It catalysed the popularity of televised poker in the early 2000s.

Counting on Success in Late 2027 or Maybe 2028

The only negative is that Scorsese was an executive producer on the 2021 movie The Card Counter. Also starring Oscar Isaac in the lead role, the movie received widespread critical praise but was a box-office miss, grossing only $5 million worldwide.

Entertainment industry publication Production Weekly has reported a May 2026 start to filming, placing The Roman in active production now. No release date has been officially announced. A late 2027 or early 2028 slot is thought most likely for the drama’s debut.